Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald and the Rubaiyat

Conference - Programme

July 9 - 10th 2009
Trinity College, University of Cambridge
Cambridge, CB2 1TQ

“And, strange to tell, among that earthen Lot
Some could articulate, while others not:
And suddenly one more impatient cried -
‘Who is the Potter, pray, and who the pot?”

July 2009 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

Omar Khayyam, Edward FitzGerald
and the Rubaiyat

Conference Programme

Registration to the conference for non-participants:
The fee (lunch and accommodation excluded) to attend the two days is £25;
The fee (lunch and accommodation excluded) per day is £15.

Thursday 9th July - Winstanley Theatre, Trinity College

9:30 - 10:00 Registrations
10:00 - 11:00 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT
(Chair: Dr Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, Leiden University, The Netherlands)
  G. Garrard (Indep. Scholar):
“Edward Heron-Allen's Analysis of FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and its legacy”
  M. Kaiserlian (Indiana Univ., USA):
“The Imagined Elites of the Omar Khayyam Club”
11:00 - 11:30 Coffee
11:30 - 13:00 CLOSE READING OF THE POEM, I
(Chair: Prof. Adrian Poole, Cambridge University)
  R. Douglas-Fairhurst (Oxford Univ., UK):
“FitzGerald's Timelines”
  D. Karlin (Sheffield Univ., UK):
“Much Ado About Nothing in the Rubaiyat”
  E. Gray (Columbia Univ., USA):
“A Blind Understanding: Making Sense of the Rubaiyat”
13:00 - 14:30 Lunch
14:30 - 16:00 CLOSE READING OF THE POEM, II
(Chair: Anna Buckland, Cambridge University)
  M. Simidchieva (York Univ., Toronto, Canada):
“Recasting Persian Poetry: FitzGerald's Rubaiyat as a vehicle of modernity?”
  C. Decker (Nevada Univ., USA):
“FitzGerald's Incomplete Unrest”
  T. Briggs (Retired scholar):
“Poems of the Three Pessimists: the Similar Lives and Different destinies of Thomas Gray, Edward FitzGerald and A.E. Housman”
17.30 Key-note address
(Chair Professor Charles Melville, Cambridge University)
  Professor Dick Davis (Austin Univ., USA):
“Too good a Poem to be faithful?”

 

Friday 10th July - Winstanley Theatre, Trinity College

9:30 - 11:00 THE RECEPTION OF THE POEM
(Chair: Dr Christine van Ruymbeke, Cambridge University)
  F. Abdullaeva & C. Melville (Oxford Univ. & Cambridge Univ., UK):
“‘The Russian Khayyam”
  T. Shurgaia (Tbilisi Univ., Georgia):
“The Translation of Omar Khayyam's Poetry into Georgian - a touchstone for translators”
  A. Drury (Princeton Univ., USA):
“Some of the Glories of the Sole”: The Rubaiyat and FitzGerald's Skeptical American Parodists”
11:00 - 11:30 Coffee
11:30 - 13:00 THE INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE, I
(Chair: Dr Adelene Vaninskaya, Cambridge University)
  A. Talib (Oxford Univ., UK):
“Getting away with poetry: Le Galienne's Paraphrase and the Limits of Translation”
  C. Wilmer (Cambridge Univ., UK):
“The Rubaiyat as a Victorian Poem”
  P. Loloi (Indep. Scholar):
“The Vogue of the English Rubaiyat and Dedicatory poems in Honour of Khayyam and FitzGerald”
13:00 - 14:30 Lunch
14:30 - 16:00 THE INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE, II and THE EDITIONS OF THE POEM
(Chair: Dr Gabrielle van den Berg, Leiden University)
  E. Behtash (Chahabar Univ., Iran):
“The Reception of FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by the Victorians”
  W. Martin & S. Mason (Indep. Scholars):
“The Illustration of FitzGerald's Rubaiyat, and its contribution to enduring popularity”
  J. Drew (Indep. Scholar):
“The Dog and the Mongoose: The story of the 1862 Madras edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam”