Keynote

The keynote lecture of the conference will be given by Joep Leerssen (Chair of Modern European Literature at the University of Amsterdam):

"Emotive communities: The Lyric as form, affect and platform"

The power to bond readerships is a well-known social function of literature. The rise of Romantic Nationalism is usually linked to the (re-)emergence of two genres in particular: the novel (historical or melodramatic) and lyrical ballad poetry. Why do these come to the fore almost simultaneously as prime carriers of Romantic literature and Romantic nation-building? How can we compare their respective readership-bonding functions?

Professor Leerssen's website can be found here: https://leerssen.nl/