Laura Marcus Life-Writing Workshop: 'Why Life-Writing?'

Join us for the second Laura Marcus Life-Writing Workshop of Michaelmas Term 2024, led by Professor Dame Hermione Lee, Professor Elleke Boehmer, and Dr Kate Kennedy.

In this interactive workshop, three celebrated life-writers, Professor Dame Hermione Lee, Professor Elleke Boehmer, and Dr Kate Kennedy, will attempt to answer the question, ‘Why Life-Writing?’

Drawing upon selected passages from Deborah Levy’s ‘living autobiography”, Things I Don’t Want to Know (2013), Prof Boehmer will discuss the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ underlying Levy’s approach to writing her life.

The evolution of her newly-released book, Cello: A Journey through Silence to Sound (2024)—which intertwines quest-story, life-writing, and autobiography— will inform Dr Kennedy’s response to the workshop's guiding question.

Finally, Professor Lee will reflect on the interplay between academic study, biography, and autobiography.

Preparation:

Participants are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the following texts:

• Deborah Levy, Things I Don’t Want to Know (2013)
• Kate Kennedy, Cello: A Journey through Silence to Sound (2024)

Additionally, participants should be prepared to briefly discuss their experiences—as writers and readers—navigating the relationship between academic study and life-writing. How has your experience of reading or writing a memoir/autobiography/biography related to or enhanced your study of a particular author?

This event is exclusively open to current members of the University of Oxford. Workshop places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, with priority given to members of the English Faculty. Confirmations of attendance will be sent out one week before the event.

Tea, coffee, and cake will be served during the workshop.

The event will take place in the St Cross Building on Manor Road (more information). Attendees are encouraged to wear face coverings while indoors and to use an LFT prior to attending.