‘The Don Quixote Virtual Reading Group in the ‘Cervantes Reborn’ project: meetup and discussion of approaches to Cervantes in 2017’
Wednesday 1 February 2017, 5-7 pm, room A112, Samuel Alexander Building, The University of Manchester
Discussants: Dr Esther Gómez-Sierra (SPLAS, SALC), Virtual Reading Group facilitator & ‘Cervantes Reborn’ leader; Prof Chris Perriam (SPLAS, SALC), ‘Cervantes Reborn’ participant and active member of the Don Quixote Virtual Reading Group; Maria Montt-Strabucchi, PG student (SPLAS, SALC), active member of the Don Quixote Virtual Reading Group.
Since 2005 there has been a flurry of Cervantine commemorations, all around the totemic 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Part of Don Quixote in 2005; the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Exemplary Novels in 2013; the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Second Part of Don Quixote in 2015; and, last but not least, the 400th anniversary of Cervantes’s death in 2016. 2017 will still see the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the posthumous publication of The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda... And after all this, what? ‘Cervantes Reborn’ interrogates the post-commemorative landscape of Cervantine studies and suggests further avenues which aim to integrate research, learning enhancement, and public engagement. The Don Quixote Virtual Reading Group was piloted in 2016, and is now being relaunched with the aim to build a transnational community of readers and researchers on Don Quixote across and (especially) beyond academia. Today’s discussion will focus on different experiences of reading, on the constitution of virtual communities, and on transdisciplinary approaches to the text. It does not matter whether you have read the book before or not, whether you speak Spanish or not; we are tackling the book as a piece of life. As the Nigerian writer Ben Okri said, ‘If there is one novel you should read before you die, it is Don Quixote’.
?The MancQuixotians blog starts here: https://medium.com/@UoMQuixotians/the-mancquixotians-blog-a-don-quixote-virtual-reading-group-dd68b27c23b1#.47mr5ndae
?The associated twitter account is @UoMQuixotians
?There will be drinks and nibbles after the session.
You are all welcome! Ah! and bring a Quixotian object with you! ‘What is a Quixotian object’, you might ask... Well, that is for you to guess and/or decide...
This event is included in the 400Cervantes world network
