Northern City Renaissance

While we're gearing up for Anna's session on the 2nd May, just a quick note to say that there's still time to catch the 'Northern City Renaissance' exhibition at the Laing gallery, Newcastle. Place and space enthusiasts will enjoy depictions of the city's changing cityscape from local and national artists, including the Ashington group - who are coincidentally the subject of Lee Hall's hugely successful play, running at the Live theatre this month.

Arguably the  jewel in the crown, Stephen Hannock's eponymous 'Northern City Renaissance' is a deceptively complex work composed of mini narratives  about the city, alternately personal and factual. The exhibition is well worth a visit, whatever your thoughts on the painting's patron (I jest):

Finally, thanks to all those who have signed up for the Shandy Hall session/trip next month- it's looking to be a great day.

Readings for Tuesday 28th February

As mentioned below our next meeting will take place on this coming Tuesday, led by Laurie Mckee. We'll be talking about Robin Hood and theories of hospitality (especially Derridean), and our texts are:

• Anon., "A Gest of Robin Hood" (c.1450) [circulated to mailing list]
• Mark W. Westmoreland, "Interruptions: Derrida and Hospitality", Kritike 2, 1 (2008): 1-10.  [available at: www.kritike.org/journal/issue_3/westmoreland_june2008.pdf]

As usual, all are warmly and hospitably welcomed to join and discounted wine will flow. If you're not on the mailing list and would like to join in, just email us at spacestheory@hotmail.co.uk.

Summary of October Meeting

Tristram charts the plots of the first four volumes of

Tristram Shandy, 1762 (vol. 6, ch. 40, p. 152).

Thank you to everyone who turned up for Friday’s reading group, we hope you enjoyed the discussion. For the curious who didn’t make it, here’s a brief summary:

After some appropriately nomadic wandering from Lipman building to Squires building in search of a suitable room, we watched Penny Grennan’s short film A Journey Around my Life with a glass of white wine (Helen forgot the red). We then pondered the distinction between charts and maps, the influence of Laurence Sterne and Descartes on de Maistre, and the complex fusion of seriality and plot in Penny’s film. There was also a healthy debate about the economy of travel theory proposed by Georges Van Den Abbeele and how perhaps nomadic cultures (and even rambling texts) are difficult to assimilate to the A to B kind of travel that he favours. This led to a consideration of a changing or multiple sense of ‘home’. We also discussed ennui, walking, typographic margins and textual spaces, and the securing of national boundaries arising from the French Revolution. Quite a mixture!

The next meeting will be Friday 18th November, when Laurie McKee will introduce some Robin Hood texts which we will be comparing to Derrida’s theory of hospitality. Red wine will be available, and keep your eyes peeled for a confirmation of the room, as our usual one seems to be missing a computer. If you want to plan ahead even further, the 2011/12 schedule can be found here. Laurie’s extracts will be circulated in early November.

In the meantime, keep checking our ‘Useful Pages’ tab - it's regularly updated with related links and CFPs.

Confirmed Dates

Lipman 121 is booked for the following dates, all Friday afternoons at 4:30pm:

October 7, 2011 (led by Helen Williams, on Xavier de Maistre and Jenny Mezciems)
November 18, 2011 (led by Laurie McKee, on Robin Hood, hospitality and Derrida)
December 9, 2011 (led by Dr Clare Elliott, on Walden and perhaps Emerson's 'Nature')
January 20, 2012
February 17, 2012
March 16, 2012 Now changed to March 23, 2012
May 18, 2012

Clare has kindly offered to lead the December session and we are keen to plan next term's meetings as soon as possible, so please get in touch with ideas. And feel free to spread the word. Non-Northumbria readers can be added to the group's mailing list by contacting spacestheory@hotmail.co.uk.

We’ll be in touch soon with the extract of Jenny Mezciems’s journal article, but in the mean time here is the primary reading for 7th October: Xavier de Maistre (1795), A Journey round my Room (Philadelphia: Carey, 1829). We will be focusing on pp. 1-25.