100 Years of 100 Acres: The Natures of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Centenary Celebration
Centre for Research in Children's Literature at Cambridge (CRCLC)
Since its publication in 1926, A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard’s Winnie-the-Pooh has become a beloved nursery classic, its delightful cast of characters and charming stories bearing myriad reworkings, from iconic animations to Latin translations, not to mention becoming bestselling philosophy, and big business.
This one-day celebration will provide an opportunity for scholars of Pooh to return to the Hundred Acre Wood and reflect on the past, present, and future of our ursine friend. A century later, what is the special nature of Pooh, and how does it speak to our current moment? How do recent approaches to children’s literature, from posthumanism to ecocriticism, shed new light on the text? And how might we make sense of the adaptability and longevity of these tales; the entangled global history of this book?
Alongside the selected academic talks, the event will feature an exhibition from Homerton Library’s outstanding collection of children’s literature; opportunities to interact with the beautiful grounds and gardens of the College; and a splendid (and appropriately themed) afternoon tea.
We invite proposals for twenty-minute papers, or panels of three papers, or roundtables, and encourage submissions from a diverse range of participants. Poster or creative (artistic/poetic) contributions are also welcomed. Suggested themes or topics for papers include (but are not limited to):
- Pooh and the natural world
- Ecocriticism and ecofeminism
- Pooh and the non-human
- Animal studies
- Critical plant studies
- Forestry and fieldwork
- Environmentalism, conservation, and climate crisis
- Illustration and art history
- Publishing histories
- Histories of childhood and reading
- Responses to and reinterpretations of Pooh
- Pooh in translation
- Nature and cultures of childhood
- Time and commemoration
- Intergenerationality
- Pooh in the classroom
- Decolonising the Hundred Acres
- The poetic nature(s) of Pooh
- Materialities and toys
- Placing Pooh in local and global contexts
- Natural histories and natural philosophies
- The nature of language in Pooh
Abstracts of no more than 300 words, together with the name and institutional affiliation of the speaker, should be submitted via this form. Proposals for panels should include a description of each paper.
The closing date for submissions is midnight UK time on Sunday 29th March 2026.
Registration details and costs will be available soon via the College website.
No comments:
Post a Comment