Reports from events.​

Manipulating the reader in fiction. A Stylistic Perspective
Aix-Marseille University, 28 April 2017
 
On 28 April 2017 in Aix-en-Provence, Prof. Sandrine Sorlin, the current chair of the French Society for English Stylistics, brought an international team of stylisticians together to focus on how readers are ‘manipulated’ during their experience of reading. Crossing several disciplines in exploring the linguistic, psychological and cognitive sources of manipulation, the symposium participants delved into the nature of the emotions that the fictional work tends to elicit as well as the positions readers are encouraged to occupy.  Coming from different theoretical backgrounds, they gave rich and varied talks addressing these questions: How do fictional works stylistically and pragmatically go about leading readers to particular types of response?  How is reader attention controlled? How are potential expectations played with, or emotions triggered?
 
The programme of the one-day conference can be downloaded from the Société de Stylistique Anglaise’s website
 
Publication of all the papers from the conference is under consideration. To stay informed of developments, please follow the French SSA on Twitter and Facebook!​

​Discourse: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Identity
The One-Day Colloquium at the University of Sussex, November 18th, 2016.
Organised by Roberta Piazza with the collaboration of Charlotte Taylor (Department of English Language and Linguistics, School of English, University of Sussex)

​To say the event was enjoyable and well received, it would not do justice to a friendly yet very thought-provoking opportunity to discuss together how different scholars address identity issues. The event was a great success thanks to the enthusiasm with which participants responded and made the most of the day. People from a variety of places within and outside the UK, Austria, Cyprus, Prague and Italy came to deliver papers and listen to the talks given by well-established discourse analysts and young PhD students. The event was generously funded by PALA that made possible to have coffee breaks and a light veggie lunch that was mostly appreciated. Many of the attendees didn’t know PALA so the colloquium was an excellent opportunity to advertise the association. Thanks are also due to Sussex’s ROLLS (Research on Language and Linguistics Seminars) for an additional contribution.
There was a wide variety of papers from scholars in different disciplines besides linguistics, e.g. law, psychology, medicine, journalism, history as well as areas of linguistics besides discourse, e.g. semantics. The contributions that explored identity both as social practice and representation varied from investigations of ‘how to get rich’ books, exchanges in transgender youth groups, discourse of Chinese transnational media, (counter) narratives among crafts practitioners, interaction in drama rehearsals, military memoirs, judicial discourse, speech presentation in BBC News coverage and more. The thrust of the day was that identity construction is an extremely pervasive practice that not only can but needs to be considered from a variety of perspectives. Very interesting and crucial to the colloquium was the consideration of what we can understand as ‘text’ as speakers considered text the interaction in court or the gossip through which exclusion can be realized, but also books, news, historical public documents and memoirs.
The enthusiasm that all participants showed in the comments sent in the days after the event is at the basis of the decision to carry on next autumn with a second event more focused on interdisciplinary methodology.
It was great to see the great work that all of the presenters are doing. It was a thought-provoking day -which I think should be the goal of these sorts of things. I'd be delighted to be a part of similar events in the future/I enjoyed it, thank you for your energy in organising the day. I liked the slightly informal feel to the event, structured and timetabled but not overly officious as some events can sometimes be…. For me, the generally broad approach to 'discourse', what it can be and how it might be examined was good. Within the overall theme of discourse identities hearing a plurality of approaches made the day varied and entertaining even though it was a fairly packed day….Please keep me on your mailing list … with any news on whether the colloquium becomes a series.
Roberta Piazza
Discourse: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Identity