Thursday 18 March & Thursday 25 March 2021, 18.30 - 20.00 (GMT)
(Hosted on Zoom)
To book visit: Jeudis 2021: Lates with Lee - 18 & 25 March — BADS (gold.ac.uk)
British Association of Decadence Studies, in association with the International Vernon Lee Society, would like to invite you two online Thursday evening events exploring the life and works of Vernon Lee.
Hauntings: Vernon Lee and the Supernatural Short Story
Thursday 18 March 2021(18.30 - 20.00 GMT)
The first of our events brings together two speakers who will discuss Lee’s approach to the fantastic and the supernatural. The talks will be followed by a Q& A session.
Haunted Portraits: Decadence, Transgression and the Arts in Vernon Lee’s Fiction: Patricia Pulham
Vernon Lee’s short stories are filled with a plethora of art forms, including paintings, statues, and music. Among her best-known collections are Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales (1890) and For Maurice: Five Unlikely Stories (1927). This talk will consider the importance of art forms in her supernatural fiction and explore their significance in the context of late-Victorian decadence.
‘Horror at this absorbing Italy’: Haunted Architecture in Vernon Lee’s Italian Ghost Stories: Emma Liggins
This talk will consider Vernon Lee’s fascination with the dark side of the Italian city in her ghost stories and travel writing. In ‘A Wicked Voice’ and ‘The Legend of Madame Krasinska’ the cosmopolitan decadence of Florence and Venice is both tourist attraction and site of horror. Liggins will discuss how the disorientating spaces of old Italy in Lee’s writing offer an escape from a modernity increasingly seen as vulgar and unsightly.
Vernon Lee’s Aesthetics: A Roundtable
Thursday 25 March 2021 (18.30 - 20.00 GMT)
This evening’s roundtable event will bring together five speakers – Elisa Bizzotto, Dennis Denisoff, Sondeep Kandola, Fraser Riddell, and Francesco Ventrella – who each approach Lee’s aesthetic theories from unique perspectives. Participants will converse on Lee’s interest in literature, painting, sculpture, and music, the Paterian origins of her aesthetics, her decadent influences, and Lee’s landscape aesthetics. Each of our speakers will discuss their approach to Vernon Lee’s aesthetics, and then will welcome questions from the audience.