Conference: Uses of Romantacism
18-19 February 2026
As a convenient way to organise knowledge — to describe a historical period, to address questions of cultural style, to open up comparative debates — romanticism remains a useful term. But what does it mean to think about romanticism as useful? What kinds of knowledge, in which languages and from what places, does the term collect and organise? What work does romanticism do in the present and can its critical utility outlast our growing understanding of its alliance with historical injustices? The symposium will consider the relevance of romanticism for a discussion of literature created in a range of British, Irish and imperial locations and consider the extent to which use itself is a concept that is imprinted by colonialism.
