‘Dear Diary’: New Approaches to an Established Genre  

Press Release:    http://www.sussex.ac.uk/press_office/media/media178.shtml

Conference at the Centre for German-Jewish Studies, University of Sussex, 22^nd – 23^rd November 2001  

Overview of Conference:

The diary kept by the teenager Anne Frank between 1942 and 1944, whilst in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam, is one of the most widely read and impressive books of the twentieth century. It is significant as an historical document and as a work of literature in equal measure. The diary as a genre and a practice has a five hundred year tradition, and Anne Frank's is just one famous example. Every year numerous diaries by prominent figures are published and
consumed by a public eager for 'private' insights into a life, and yet it is arguably the only literary form which intimidates no-one and is familiar to all. Despite this diaries and journals have tended to be neglected by research. 

In conjunction with the exhibition 'Anne Frank: A History for Today', to be held at Brighton College Great Hall in November 2001, the Centre for German-Jewish Studies at the University of Sussex plans to hold a two-day colloquium entitled '"Dear Diary": New Approaches to an Established Genre' on Thursday November 22 and Friday November 23. We hope to investigate as many of the different aspects of this important literary mode as possible over two days. Papers on individual diaries should also incorporate reflections on the genre, exploring some of the broader questions suggested by the topic. 

Programme:

Thursday 22^nd November

  9.00-10.00            Registration + Coffee

10.00-10.30     Welcome - Professor Edward Timms (Centre for German-Jewish Studies, University of Sussex), Dorothy Sheridan (Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex)

10.30-12.30            Session 1: Chair: Edward Timms (University of Sussex)

Suzanne L. Bunkers (Minnesota State University), Whose Diary is it anyway?  Issues of Agency, Authority, Ownership.

Pat Pinsent (University of Surrey Roehampton), The Functions of Diary Passages within the Narratives of a Selection of Recent Children’s Fiction.

12.30-13.3    Lunch

13.30-15.30         Session 2: Chair:  Lyn Barzilai (University of Haifa)

Tony Kushner (University of Southampton), The Intimacy of Difference: Writing ‘Race’ and the Mass-Observation Diaries.

Joyce Thomson (St. Mary’s University, Nova Scotia), “From henceforth you must hold all my secrets”:  Clandestine diaries and the ethical limits of social history.

15.30-16.00            Tea

16.00-18.00            Session 3: Chair: 

Christoph Knoch, ANNE FRANK-Fonds, Basel, Switzerland and Chana Moshenska (University of Sussex), Anne Frank and the use of diaries as resources for Holocaust Education.

Edward Timms (University of Sussex), “Diaries in the night”: Theodor Haecker and Victor Klemperer.

Zaia Alexander (UCLA), Beyond Babel: Translating the Holocaust at Century’s End.

19.00               Conference Dinner

Friday 23^rd November

9.00-10.30       Session 4: Chair:  Carol Kedward (Dean of the School of Cultural and Community Studies, University of Sussex)

                        Philippe Lejeune (Paris), Diaries on the Internet*

Francoise Simonet (Paris), Les jeux entre journal et correspondance dans le Journal de Catherine Pozzi.*

10.30-11.00              Coffee

11.00-12.30            Session 5:  Chair:  Prof. Rod Kedward (University of Sussex)

Bert Gordon (Mills College, Oakland CA), A Commonplace Book from May 1968: Typical of the Genre? Or Atypical?

Richard Toye (University of Manchester), Twentieth Century British Political Diaries.

12.30-13.30         Lunch

13.30-15.01Session 6:  Chair:  Carol DeBoer-Langworthy (Brown University, USA)

Murray Pratt (University of Technology, Sydney), The Diary of Neaud’s Body.

Deborah Schultz (University of Sussex), Visual and Verbal Diaries of Continuity.

15.00-15.30            Tea

15.30-17.30            Session 7: Chair:  Dorothy Sheridan (University of Sussex)             

Jackie Blackwell (Queenspark Books, Brighton), Diaries as a teaching resource in primary schools.

Sari Smith (University of Melbourne), Teaching Journal Writing in Tertiary Settings: Gender and Other Politics.

                        Academics as Diarists - Forum for Exchange and Discussion

All speakers and conference participants are welcome to take part in this open exchange which will be chaired by Dorothy Sheridan of Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex.

17.30               End of Conference

* To be delivered in French.