High and Low: Cultural Levels in Word and Image

Wednesday 8th June, 6.00pm
Reading by Don Paterson and wine reception

Thursday 9th June 2011, 9.30am - 5.00pm
Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee

High and Low is the ninth annual Postgraduate Conference held by the English Programme, University of Dundee, and runs in conjunction with the Scottish Word and Image Group annual conference. It will address configurations of high and low in literature and visual media and is particularly interested in the perceived distinction between highbrow art and lowbrow entertainment, and the ways in which middlebrow texts, and other amalgamations of these two categories, are able to negotiate the apparent gulf between them. Of particular relevance to this dichotomy are texts that have been subject to critical re-evaluations over time, works that mix the sacred and the profane, and artistically sophisticated products of trash culture. The programme and registration form are available via the conference news announcement on the English programme website.

The conference will be opened on Wednesday 8th of June by a reading by the celebrated poet Don Paterson, whose works include Nil Nil (Faber, 1993), God's Gift to Women (Faber, 1997), The Eyes (Faber, 1999), Landing Light (Faber, 2003; Graywolf, 2004), Orpheus (Faber, 2006) and Rain (Faber, 2009; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010). Paterson, originally from Dundee, teaches poetry at the University of St Andrews and received the OBE in 2008 and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2010. There is a separate registration form for this event, available from our news announcement about the poetry reading and reception, also on the English programme website.