RETHINKING LATE STYLE CONFERENCE
Dates: 21 – 22 August 2008
Sponsor: Research School of Humanities, College of Arts and Social
Sciences, ANU Acknowledgement: British Academy (for enabling the
participation of Karen Leeder)
Conveners:
Gordon McMullan, King’s College, London gordon.mcmullan@kcl.ac.uk
Roger Hillman, Film Studies - School of Humanities, ANU
roger.hillman@anu.edu.au
Sam Smiles, University of Plymouth ssmiles@plymouth.ac.uk
Venue: Old Canberra House, Lennox Crossing, ANU
This conference will be the second part of two conferences, the first to be held at King’s
College, London in 2007 convened by Gordon McMullan and Sam Smiles. The aim is to
bring together scholars in the fields of art, music, literature, film and architecture to debate
the subject of ‘late style’ and attempt to work through the mythology to find a shared critical
language and some basic premises for future work.
What do we mean when we speak of the 'late style' of a given writer, artist or composer?
And what exactly, then, do we mean when we speak of 'Beethoven's late style',
'Shakespeare's late plays' or 'Titian's late work'? In speaking of an artist's 'late phase', are
we imagining a rejuvenated period of serene, abstract creativity late in life? Or a phase of
difficult, resistant work, a raging against the light's dying? Do we attribute the change in
style and attitude we think we see in late work to old age or to the proximity of death at any
age? And how do we negotiate those creative artists, from Hardy to Picasso, who have
deliberately, self-consciously carved out a late style, often in the process suppressing
works that do not comfortably fit the testamentary trajectory that is sought?
Furthermore, how might we debate the apparently inevitable canonicity of late work - the
fact that late styles are generally only attributed to canonical artists in the western tradition,
the overwhelming majority of them white males? Can the boundaries of lateness, in other
words, be extended and reshaped? If late style is a phenomenon of old age, can it be found
in uncanonical work? Is the concept of late style a specifically western construct or can it be
used to consider late-life creativity in non-western cultures? What of women artists, writers
or composers late in life? We aim in this conference to explore the full range of possibilities
for establishing an understanding of late style from genuine natural phenomenon to cynical
critical construct.
Day 1 – Thursday 21st August 2008
9.00am
Registration
Coffee
9.30am
Welcome/introductory remarks
9.45 – 10.55am
Session 1
Gordon McMullan, King’s College, London
Topic: Inventing Late Shakespeare
Sam Smiles, University of Plymouth
Topic: Recapitulation and Recension: J.M.W. Turner's Liber
Studiorum in the 1840s'
Chair: TBA
10.55 – 11.20am
Morning tea
11.20 – 12.30pm
Session 2
Jaynie Anderson, The University of Melbourne
Topic: Endgames in Venice: or what happened to Giovanni Bellini and
Titian when they grew old
Luke Taylor, AIATSIS, Canberra
Topic: Development in the art of John Mawurndjal
Chair: Howard Morphy, Director, Research School of Humanities
12.30 – 1.45pm
Lunch
1.45 – 2.55pm
Session 3
Liam Dee, University of South Australia
Topic: Where is cultural lateness?
John Potts, Macquarie University
Topic: The idea of Lateness: Biology and Metaphor
Chair:
2.55 – 4.05pm
Session 4
Olivia Murphy, Oxford University
Topic: Suffering sea-changes: Jane Austen and the possibilities of a
late style
Duncan Hose, The University of Melbourne
Topic: Australian poet John Forbes
Chair: Anne Collett, University of Wollongong
4.05 – 4.30pm
Afternoon tea
4.30 – 5.40pm
Session 5
Helen Ennis, The Australian National University
Topic: Max Dupain’s last photographs – a late style?
Claire Roberts, The Australian National University
Topic: Balancing Darkness and Light: the late paintings of Huang
Binhong (1865-1955)
Chair: TBA
7.30pm
Conference Dinner
Venue: Vivaldi Teatro Restaurant, ANU Arts Centre
Day 2 – Friday 22nd August 2008
8.45 – 9.15am
Registration
Coffee
9.15 – 10.25am
Session 6
Karen Leeder, Oxford University
Topic: D‘Eppur si muove’: Constructions of Lateness in the poetry of
Michael Hamburger
Melinda Harvey, The Australian National University
Topic: Early Death, Late Style: Katherine Mansfield Examined
Chair: Russell Smith, The Australian National University
10.25 – 10.50am
Morning tea
10.50 – 12.00am
Session 7
George Kouvaros¸ The University of New South Wales
Topic: ‘Those Who Wait’: The Misfits and Late Style
Roger Hillman, The Australian National University
Topic: Film reflections on the millennium
Chair: Gino Moliterno, The Australian National University
12.00 – 1.15pm
Lunch
1.15 – 2.25pm
Session 8
Peter Tregear, The University of Melbourne
Topic: Said and music
Graham Hair, Glasgow University
Topic: After Beethoven, After Adorno and After Modernism:
Schoenberg's Late Tonal Style in the Context of Three Varieties of
Twentieth-Century Tonality
Chair: Ruth Lee-Martin, ANU School of Music
2.25 – 3.00pm
Session 9
Rosanne Kennedy, The Australian National University
Topic: Joan Didion
Chair: TBA
3.00 – 3.15pm
3.15pm
Closing Remarks
Afternoon tea
Adjourn to the NMA to view
International Exhibition: Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame
Kngwarreye
(Adult Tickets $10)
______________________________________________________
Administration:
Leena Messina, Programs Manager, RSH, ANU
E: leena.messina@anu.edu.au