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2)Conference Report:
Finding the Plot
(Leeds, 14-16 April)
The conference
Finding the Plot: On theImportance of Storytelling in Popular Fictions
was held from 14 to 16 April at the University of Leeds (Devonshire Hall). It represented an importantdevelopment in the research collaboration betweenthe literary arm (or ‘cluster’) of the University of Leeds-based
Popular Cultures Research Network
(PCRN), and the University of Limoges-based
Centre de Recherches sur les Littératures Populaires et les Cultures Médiatiques
(CRLPCM), forming part of a broaderproject of research that aims to complement andinterrogate the history of ‘high’ French literature with a critical history of majority reading practices. The conference was tightly focused onquestions of plot and storytelling, with 3 plenariesand 27 papers organised in themed parallel sessionsleading into a closing round table discussion thattraced the threads of discussion and drew conclusions from the whole event. Forty scholarstook part in the conference, representing aproductive diversity of career stages, institutions,nations and research specialisms. Eleven colleaguesattended from the University of Leeds, eleven fromother universities in the UK, one from Ireland,eleven from France, two from Belgium, one fromSwitzerland, one from Sweden, one from Canada,and one from UK secondary education. Sevenpostgraduates attended, of whom two also providedconference support (both practical and academic). Abook based on selected conference proceedings is tobe produced jointly by editors from the PCRN andthe CRLPCM. The Annual General Meeting of theinternational network for the study of popularculture, currently based at the CRLPCM, was held inthe course of the conference. The Icelandic volcano suddenly erupted onthe final day, complicating return journeys. Withsome useful support from the University, and muchinitiative on the part of delegates, most were able totravel home (albeit not in the way intended and atconsiderable cost) with only a day or two’s delay – only the Québécois colleague saw the plot digress toan unexpected extra week in Leeds.Finding the Plot was advertised to a widerpublic through Education Leeds, who included aposter in their weekly pack sent out to schools, andthrough the Leeds Library and Information service who are currently engaged
on a project around thespoken and written word involving a number of storytellers working with librarians and teachers. Although this did not have the effect of bringing incolleagues from secondary/tertiary education (wehad only one delegate from this sector), we felt thatpublicity for the conference performed a usefulfunction in opening lines of communication on thistheme and thus for potential impact. We alsocontacted publishers: Berghahn and Manchester UPadvertised at the conference and made a smallcontribution to funding; HarperCollins responded with a declaration of interest in being kept informedof events and developments in our work on popularfiction and reading pleasure. The conference theme of plot andstorytelling was topical in the context of muchrecent scholarship and public debates. On the onehand, storytelling has been characterised by sometheorists (notably Christian Salmon) as a strategy of seduction widely used in politics, advertising, military and business training, to sell products or ideas – thusas sinister and manipulative. On the other hand,interesting contemporary work (Nancy Huston,Marie-Laure Ryan, Jean-Marie Schaeffer as well asseveral of those present at the conference) pursuesthe path traced by (for example) Frank Kermode,Peter Brooks, Paul Ricoeur, Janice Radway inexploring the vital role of story in the way thathuman beings relate to the world and each other, andin seeing the pleasure of even the simplest reading
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