7th International Student Byron Conference ‘Lord Byron and His Times’ Messolonghi 20–24 June 2011

The seventh International Student Byron Conference in Messolonghi (with visits to Klissova, Mount Arankinthos, Vassiladi and Aitoliko) hosted approximately 46 Byronists from many parts of the world including Britain, Canada, Greece, Lebanon and the United States. On the evening of Monday 20 June, participants made their way to the Administrative Office of the Messolonghi Byron Society and the Byron Research Center for registration and a tour of the impressive Byron collection at the centre. The participants then visited the Municipal Museum of History and Municipal Art Gallery, where they were welcomed by the Mayor of Messolonghi, Mr Panagiotis Katsoulis, and viewed beautiful paintings by various national and international artists, guided by the interpreter George Apostolatos. After visiting the gallery, participants were treated to a welcome dinner offered by the mayor. The dinner was at a Tourlida fish restaurant overlooking the beautiful Gulf of Patras. The tranquil surroundings gave the participants a chance to converse and get to know each other while enjoying a tasty and satisfying meal.

The conference officially began on Tuesday 21 June. After being welcomed by Mrs Rodanthi-Rosa Florou (President of the Messolonghi Society), Professor Byron Raizis (President of the Hellenic Byron Society) and Professor Peter Graham (the Messolonghi Byron Center’s Director of International Relations), the academic sessions began. The first session was chaired by Professor Raizis and Professor Drew Hubbell (Susquehanna) and consisted of four lectures by Maria Schoina (Aristotle), F. Joseph Baerenz (Virginia Tech), Rachel Mckee (Susquehanna) and Rhiannon Basile (Susquehanna).

In ‘Mary Shelley’s Perception of Hellenism in “Euphrasia: A Tale of Greece”’, Schoina discussed many aspects of Shelley’s text, including parallels between her views on Greece and the views of her male contemporaries, gender issues and female politics, contemporary readers’ concerns about the text and its depiction of Greece. Schoina also mentioned that Shelley’s text addresses concerns about Eastern despotism and female oppression.

In ‘The Triple Time Scheme of Don Juan’, Baerenz illustrated the three distinct time schemes that are presented in Byron’s Don Juan: ‘internal time’, ‘active time’ and ‘nostalgic time’. He explained that the ‘internal time’ of the poem is the period from 1780–1793. Its ‘active time’ is the period in which the poem was written, 1818–1824. The poem’s ‘nostalgic time’ is that of Regency England and Byron’s ‘Years of Fame’, 1812–1816. The ‘internal time’ of the poem is bound to historical events such as the Siege of Ismail in 1790, which, Baerenz asserted, Byron uses to attack the political figures of his own day. Discussing the poem’s ‘active time’, Baerenz focused on the poem’s attacks on Southey, Wordsworth, Castlereagh and Wellesley, its defences of Milton and Pope and its advocacy of Greek independence.

In ‘Dwelling in the Fourfold: How Wordsworth and Byron Teach Us to Belong’, McKee explored the theme of dwelling in the poetry of Byron and Wordsworth, explaining the difference between Wordsworth’s and Byron’s definitions of dwelling, but also arguing that for both poets ‘reflecting on nature’s sublimity (not merely its beauty) is the key to belonging both physically and spiritually’ and that, for each, ‘detachment and reflection’ are ‘vital’.

Basile’s ‘Bridging the Gaps: How the Romantics can help Reconcile Cultural Divisions’ began with a fundamental question: ‘Is it possible for art to provide relevant insights into current environmental crises?’. Basile argued that ‘artists can enable us to perceive our relationship with the natural world in different ways’ and that the ‘use of a distinctly eco-feminist perspective is not only helpful but crucial to the understanding of the overall impact of Lord Byron’s works’, then showed how Plumwood’s theories about the interdependency of binaries can offer new understandings of Byron’s deconstruction of binary logic in Manfred. Basile concluded by saying: ‘If we apply the lessons learned from Romantic pieces such as Byron’s Manfred, we can hopefully come to realise the unique strength that exists in the connections between spirit and clay, self and other, culture and nature, art and environment’.

The second session, chaired by Maria Schoina...