2005 marks the 20th anniversary of the Oxford Conference on the teaching of literature. Over the past twenty years, the Oxford Conference has influenced discussion and debate on literature teaching and given participants opportunities to meet and hear some of the most eminent academics, critics and writers in the UK. This year’s conference will involve leading names in the spheres of literature and academia including Patience Agbabi, Ron Carter, Martyn Goff, Ali Smith, Colm Tóibín and D. J. Taylor and will give participants the opportunity to discuss issues around critical reputations and practical pedagogy.  

We will be looking at three key questions:

• What tools and knowledge do today’s students need to analyse both traditional and contemporary work?
• Where can we make meaningful links with other disciplines, value systems and cultures?
• How are teachers to assess and explain the value of literature teaching and literary/critical competence?

Track One: Critical Reputations
Seminars, reading groups and the media all discuss literature in different ways. In this track, we will explore the changing reputations and relations of these divergent forms of criticism, assessing the benefits and perils of the current situation for today's readers.

Track Two: Practical Pedagogy
This track will focus on a number of fundamental issues informing the teaching of literature and literary criticism.  It will explore some of the practical implications of discussions in Track One in an attempt to bridge the gap between critical theory and pedagogic practice.

Some of the issues to be addressed include:

• What value judgements underlie our choice of reading materials? How influential are critics and canons?
• What cultural factors influence the reading and teaching of literature?
• What role can literature play in developing intercultural competence as an educational aim?

Participants' Contributions

Our Classroom Booker Prize by David Stamm (2004)
An Apparatus by Emma Dawson and Odette Vassallo

Information on how to register.
Programme 2005
Contributors 2005