One-day conference funded by the AHRC-funded Gateways to the First World War public engagement centre
Submit to Dr Berkan Ulu: B.Ulu@leeds.ac.uk
EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 28 April 2017
NOTIFICATION: 3 May 2017
Leeds City Museum, 20 June 2017
Leeds City Museum in partnership with the University of Leeds
Keynote speakers:
Dr Jenny Macleod, Senior Lecturer in Twentieth-Century History (University of
Hull), and author of Reconsidering Gallipoli (2004) and Gallipoli (2015)
Dr Jane Potter, Reader (Oxford Brookes University), and author of Wilfred
Owen: An Illustrated Life (2014) and the forthcoming Cambridge History of
World War One Poetry
Although the term “war poetry” is often dominated by poets of the Western
Front like Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and John McCrae, there is also a
great body of literature to be discovered in other fronts of the Great War. One
of these overlooked yet equally disastrous fronts is the Gallipoli Campaign.
Often credited as the first modern amphibious military operation, the Gallipoli
Campaign was a futile attempt to achieve a decisive victory against the Central
powers. When it came to an end in January 1916, it had devoured about half a
million soldiers from both sides. A century on, Gallipoli is still in the centre of
many scholarly studies, although historical, political or military aspects of the
campaign so far cover much of what has been said about the expedition. While
there is still much to discover about the campaign as a military and political
intervention, the literary, sociological, and cultural side of Gallipoli has often
been overlooked.
The wars in Gallipoli inspired a great number of poems with a multitude of
perspectives. Especially after the unexpected death of Rupert Brooke and the
heroic stories of “6 VCs before breakfast,” many poets at home felt the need to
write on Gallipoli to encourage soldiers and honour those who lost their lives.
Poems from the fighting men were more varied. There were poems written by
the educated young British officers, enthusiastic and brave Australians,
adventurous New Zealanders, and, on the other side of the firing line, Turks, as
the defenders. Some of these poets saw bravery and fear, bloodshed and
friendship, or Achilles and Hector when they looked at the Gallipoli peninsula.
Others composed poems on simpler things of life in trenches: a dog on a walk
in the firing line, men bathing in the sea, or lice and flies. Either way, these
poets represented a body of men fighting a war that had proved to be different
from what they expected.
Organised by the School of Languages, Cultures, and Societies and Centre for
World Literatures at the University of Leeds in partnership with Leeds City
Museum, this one-day conference aims to bring together scholars who are
interested in the literary legacy of the Gallipoli Campaign with emphasis on the
poetry from this front written by combatants and non-combatants alike. The
objective is to examine the less canonised, forgotten, or undiscovered voices of
the Gallipoli Front, in order to evoke interest in these poets and explore the
diversity of their works.
Topics for papers may include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Critical appreciation of soldier poems from Gallipoli
• Differences between the poetry from the Western front and the Gallipoli
Campaign
• Differences between the poems written by fighting men and those written
by male or female poets behind the lines
• Diggers’ poems and/or life in trenches in poetry from Gallipoli
• Social, cultural, and literary heritage of the campaign
• Humour in soldier poems from Gallipoli
• The Anzac legacy in poetry
• Turkish poetry on Gallipoli and its legacy
• The myth of Rupert Brooke
• Poems from the prisoners of war
• C. E. W. Bean and the Anzac Book
• Representation of the enemy in poetry
• Heroism and bravery in Gallipoli poems
• National concerns and the signs of nationhood in Anzac and Turkish poems
The daytime presentations will be followed by an evening event with the
acclaimed poet, writer, and broadcaster Ian McMillan reading from his poems
and discussing the poetry on Gallipoli.
Conference organisers:
Dr Richard Hibbitt, Director of the Centre for World Literatures, University of
Leeds
Professor Alison Fell, Professor of French Cultural History, University of Leeds
Dr Berkan Ulu, Visiting Research Fellow at the Leeds Humanities Research
Institute, University of Leeds (TUBITAK scholar: Turkish Scientific and
Technological Research Council)
-Lucy Moore, Curator (projects – WW1), Leeds Museums and Galleries
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Paper proposals should include a title, a 500-word abstract, and a short
biographical note with institutional affiliation (where appropriate) and email
contact.
Submit to Dr Berkan Ulu: B.Ulu@leeds.ac.uk
EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 28 April 2017
NOTIFICATION: 3 May 2017
