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REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Overview
The year 2009 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Johnson. To commemorate the event, Harvard University’s Houghton Library will host an international symposium to celebrate Johnson’s manifold contributions to intellectual and creative cultures. The symposium, which will be held Thursday, August 27, through Saturday, August 29, 2009, will examine or re-examine several aspects of Johnson's life and legacy.
Plenary and concurrent sessions will address such topics as Johnson in relation to gender; periodical essay; modern scholarship; the arts; eighteenth-century intellectual history; biography; literary theory and literary criticism; slavery; and his dictionary.
Participating scholars include James Basker, Greg Clingham, Robert DeMaria, Helen Deutsch, Stephen Fix, Isobel Grundy, Jack Lynch, Anne McDermott, Allen Reddick, Bruce Redford, Michael Suarez, Gordon Turnbull, Richard Wendorf.
Registration Form
Registration for the symposium is now open. The registration fee is $100.00 per person and includes all symposium events and one dinner. Completed registration form and payment must be received by July 31st , 2009. No refunds will be given after August 1st, 2009. Attendance is strictly limited due to venue capacity. Applications will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.
Hotel Information
Registrants are responsible for making their own hotel reservations for the symposium. A limited number of rooms has been reserved for confirmed registrants only at the Sheraton Commander Hotel, a five minute walk from Harvard Yard.
Exhibition Information
The symposium will coincide with the opening of a major exhibition, A Monument More Durable Than Brass: The Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson, featuring rare books and manuscripts from the Mary & Donald Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson.
Considered one of the world’s most important collections of eighteenth-century
literature, the Hyde Collection was assembled over a 60-year period.
With Johnson at its center, it encompasses letters, manuscripts, first
editions, and works of art relating to Johnson and his circle. The collection
includes half of Johnson’s surviving letters and several drafts of his
“Plan for a Dictionary” and is comprehensive in its coverage of Johnson’s
published works. A bequest of Mary, Viscountess Eccles (1912-2003), to
Houghton Library, the Hyde Collection is also rich in materials that document
the lives of Johnson’s friends and contemporaries, such as James Boswell,
Hester Thrale Piozzi, Tobias Smollett, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and David
Garrick.
Contact Peter X. Accardo at accardo@fas.harvard.edu or (617) 496-4027 with additional questions.
Symposium Program
Thursday, August 27 |
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| 8:30am - 4pm | Registration (Emerson Hall Room 210) | |
| 9:00 - 9:15am | Welcome Emerson Hall Room 210) | |
| 9:15 - 10:30am | Plenary Session | |
| Nicholas Hudson, University of British Columbia, Johnson and Revolution | ||
| 10:30 - 11am | Break | |
| 11am - 12:30pm | (Concurrent Morning Sessions) | |
Session 1: Johnson and Gender (Lamont Library, Forum Room)Chair/Commentator: Isobel Grundy, University of Alberta |
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| Lisa Berglund, Buffalo State College, SUNY, "The Notion that there is Sex in Words": Johnson, Piozzi and Gendered Lexicography | ||
| Sarah Jordan, Albion College, Johnson's Masculinity and English Identity | ||
| Betty A. Schellenberg, Simon Fraser University, Manuscript Culture and Women as Patrons of Samuel Johnson | ||
Session 2: Johnson and America (Emerson Hall, Room 210)Chair/Commentator: Peter Martin, Independent Scholar |
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| Thomas M. Curley, Bridgewater State College Johnson and the Problem of America: "I am willing to love all mankind, except an American" |
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| William C. Dowling, Rutgers University Boswell at the Breakfast Table: Holmes, Johnson, and the Saturday Club |
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| Helen Deutsch, University of California, Los Angeles American Johnsons |
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| 12:30 - 2pm | Lunch (On your own) | |
| 2:00 - 4:00pm | (Concurrent Afternoon Sessions) | |
Session 3: Johnson, Boswell, and the Circle (Emerson Hall, Room 210)Chair/Commentator: Gordon Turnbull, Yale University |
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| John Radner, George Mason University, emeritus, Connecting with Three "Young Dogs": Johnson's Early Letters to Robert Chambers, Bennet Langton, and James Boswell | ||
| James J. Caudle, Yale University, O Rare Sam Jo[h]nson: Boswell's Drummond and Johnson's Jonson | ||
| M.F. Rusnak, BCCC/ Rutgers University, New Evidence in the Joseph (Giuseppe) Baretti Murder Trial | ||
Session 4: Johnson and Religion (Lamont Library, Forum Room)Chair/Commentator: Howard D. Weinbrot, University of Wisconsin, Madison |
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| Steven Scherwatzky, Merrimack College, Johnson's Fallen World | ||
| Michael F. Suarez, S.J., Fordham University and Campion Hall, Oxford, Johnson and the Sacred Page | ||
| Elizabeth Kraft, University of Georgia, Johnson at Prayer | ||
| Alvaro Ribeiro, S.J., Georgetown University, Samuel Johnson: Christian | ||
| 4:15 - 6:00pm | Reception and viewing of Houghton Library's exhibition, A Monument More Durable than Brass: The Donald & Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson and tours of the Hyde Rooms and Collection | |
Friday, August 28 |
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| 8:30am - 4pm | Registration (Emerson Hall, Room 210) | |
| 9:00 - 10:30am | Plenary Session (Emerson Hall, Room 210) | |
The Dictionary |
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| Anne McDermott, Johnson's Abandoned Dictionary: The Failed First Attempt | ||
| Jack Lynch, Rutgers University, Modes of Definition in Johnson and His Contemporaries | ||
| Allen Reddick, Vindicating Milton: Poetic Misprision in Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language | ||
| 10:30 - 11am | Break | |
| 11:00am -12:30pm | (Concurrent Morning Sessions) | |
Session 5: Johnson's Dictionary: A Follow-up Session (Emerson Hall, Room 210)Chair: Robert DeMaria, Jr., Vassar College |
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| Christopher Pearce, Boston University | ||
| Elizabeth Hedrick, University of Texas, Austin | ||
| Robert DeMaria Jr., Vassar College | ||
Session 6: Johnson, Literary Theory, and Literary Criticism (Lamont Library, Forum Room)Chair/Commentator: Greg Clingham, Bucknell University |
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| Gillian Paku, SUNY Geneseo, Wanting a Name: Johnson and Anonymity | ||
| Philip Smallwood, Birmingham City University, Johnson's Criticism and the Reign of Historicism | ||
| David Simpson, University of California, Davis, Rasselas by the Ilissus: History, Writing and the Book | ||
| 12:30 - 2:00pm | Lunch (On your own) | |
| 2:00 - 3:30pm | (Concurrent Afternoon Sessions) | |
Session 7: Johnson and the Book Trade (Emerson Hall, Room 210)Chair/Commentator: Pat Rogers, University of South Florida |
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| Terry Belanger, University of Virginia, Damned thick books: Johnson's Dictionary in Context | ||
| James Raven, University of Essex, Dr. Johnson's Fleet Street | ||
| Paul Baines, University of Liverpool, "He was Impertinent to me, and I beat him": Samuel Johnson and the Rogue Bookseller | ||
Session 8: Johnson and Modern Scholarship (Lamont Library, Forum Room)Chair/Commentator: Helen Deutsch, University of California, Los Angeles |
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| Wendy Laura Belcher, Princeton University, All Africa's Prodigies in Us: Discursive Possession and Abyssinia's Johnson | ||
| Vivasvan Soni, Northwestern University, The Choice between Utopia and the Utopian Imagination in Johnson's Rasselas | ||
| Adam Rounce, Manchester Metropolitan University, The Workings of Envy: The Context of Some Responses to the Lives of Poets | ||
Session 9: Johnson and Eighteenth-Century Intellectual History (Barker Center, Thompson Room)Chair/Commentator: Michael F. Suarez, S.J. Fordham University and Campion Hall, Oxford |
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| John T. Scanlan, Providence College, Johnson, William Burton, and the Emergence of the "Famous Dr. Boerhaave" | ||
| Isobel Grundy, University of Alberta, The Progress of the Human Mind: What did Johnson Believe about Intellectual History | ||
| Thomas F. Bonnell, St. Mary's College, "Emanations of the Mind": Versions of Intellect in Boswell's Life of Johnson | ||
Saturday, August 29 |
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| 9:00 - 10:30am | Plenary Session (Barker Center, Thompson Room) |
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| James Basker, Barnard College, Columbia University, Johnson and Slavery | ||
| 10:30 - 11:00am | Break | |
| 11:00am - 12:30pm | (Concurrent Morning Sessions) | |
Session 10: Lives of the Poets and Eighteenth-Century Biography (Barker Center, Thompson Room)Chair/Commentator: Bruce Redford, Boston University |
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| Julian Pooley, The Nichols Archive Project, "Conciliating his Esteem": The Contribution of John Nichols to Johnson's Lives and Legacy | ||
| Katherine Kickel, Miami University, Johnson's Lives and the Meditative Moment | ||
| Stuart Sherman, Fordham University, Obsequy and Imagination: Time in the Lives | ||
Session 11: Aspects of Johnson's Reception in Three European Literary Circles (Barker Center, Kresge Room)Chair/Commentator: Philip Smallwood, Birmingham City University |
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| Linde Katritsky, University of Florida, Johnson's Imprints on Georg Christoph Lichtenberg and on His Aphoristic Thinking and Writing | ||
| Giovanni Iamartino, University of Milan, "My British sack of learning, my Samuel Johnson": Giuseppe Baretti and the Early Italian Reception of Johnson's Works | ||
| John Stone, University of Barcelona, Johnson in Spanish Translation, 1764-1820 | ||
Session 12: Samuel Johnson and the Burneys: A Fortunate Friendship (Houghton Library, Edison and Newman Room)Chair/Commentator: Catherine M. Parisian, University of North Carolina, Pembroke |
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| Peter Sabor, McGill University, "A Word for Every Chapter": Johnson's Dictionary and the Burneys | ||
| Margaret Anne Doody, University of Notre Dame, Behold Dear Little Burney and Dr. Johnson | ||
| Kate Chisholm, University of Surrey, A Bird of Prey and Dear Little Burney: Dr. Johnson, Charlotte Lennox and Frances Burney | ||
| 12:30 - 2:00pm | Lunch Break (On your own) | |
| 2:00 - 3:30pm | (Concurrent Afternoon Sessions) | |
Session 13: Johnson and the Arts (Houghton Library, Edison and Newman Room)Chair/Commentator: Richard Wendorf, Boston Athenaeum |
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| Melinda Rabb, Brown University, "Nothing too little... for a creature such as man": Johnson and Eighteenth-Century Miniature | ||
| Robert Folkenflik, University of California, Irvine, Johnson's Body and Reynolds' Portaits | ||
Session 14: Johnson and Non-Boswellian Biography (Barker Center, Thompson Room)Chair/Commentator: Michael Bundock, Independent Scholar |
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| Paul Tankard, University of Otago, New Zealand, George Steevens and the Biography Wars | ||
| Freya Johnston, St. Anne's College, Oxford, Atoms of Humanity: Rasselas, Anecdote, and Early Lives of Johnson | ||
| Laurent Ferri, Cornell University, A Different take on the Biographical Phenomenon: Samuel Johnson's Place in Literary History as Explained by the Development of "Literary Tourism" in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries | ||
| 6:30 - 7:00pm | Reception (Sheraton Commander Hotel) | |
| Peter Martin, The Great Escape: In the Footsteps of Johnson and Garrick from Lichfield to London, 1737 |
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| 7:00 - 9:30pm | Dinner (Sheraton Commander Hotel) | |