Book of Bratislava UK Launch
Part of Plots, Paths, Polyphony: Writing and Mapping European Cities
Hong Kong Alumni Room
Bentham House, Faculty of Laws, University College London
About the event
About the Event
As part of UCL's symposium - Plots, Paths, Polyphony: Writing and Mapping European Cities - a group of contributors to the Book of Bratislava will come together to celebrate the launch of the anthology in London. This event will feature Julia Sherwood (editor), Paul Kaye (translator), Peter Sherwood (translator) and Isabella Barber (Comma Press). There will also be a remote reading from Barbora Hrinova (author). The event will be chaired by Tim Beasley-Murray, UCL Arts & Sciences.
About the Symposium
This conference examines such dynamics by foregrounding the interplay between literary texts about, social and spatial practices in, and cartographic representations of cities. How do literary texts and mappings thereof engage with urban spaces that are newly encountered, only partially understood, or negotiated across diCerent, overlapping languages and traditions? Through panel discussions, readings, interviews, a creative session and a literary walk, we will look at how storytelling and narratives plot and frame the city—whether in fiction, historiography, or mapping. We will explore how writers across the centuries have forged their paths through urban space, and by so doing (re)produced and (re)interpreted the city. And we will pay attention to the polyphony of literary, linguistic, and political voices as they coexist, intersect, and sometimes conflict within urban environments. Bringing together academics, creative writers, translators, curators and digital mappers, the symposium will not only explore a variety of genres – from essays to novels, from diaries to data mapping, from theatre to travel accounts. It will also encourage diverse formats to take this critical engagement further: theorising, translating, debating, performing.
