The Calendar Custom and Contemporary Fiction
- 04/02/2025
- 19:00-20:30
- online talk
Sophie Parkes-Nield; photo: Graeme Cooper Photography
The Calendar Custom and Contemporary Fiction
A Folklore Society online talk
by Sophie Parkes-Nield
Tuesday 4 February 2025, 19:00 GMT
How could, or even should, a writer approach intangible cultural heritage such as the calendar custom in their creative work?
This talk is based on Sophie Parkes-Nield’s doctoral research that examines the role and impact of the calendar custom in contemporary fiction. In it, Sophie will appraise examples of contemporary fiction in which a calendar custom is represented, and reflect on her own practice of writing a novel in which a calendar custom is situated at its heart.
She will discuss concepts such as the carnivalesque and the folkloresque to understand how fiction like this may be better understood, and posits whether the calendar custom as ‘the final ritual’ (Bayman & Donnelly, 2023, p. 15) is in danger of being typecast as strange, dangerous – even bloodthirsty.
Finally, she will conclude with a series of provocations for writers intending to work creatively with the calendar custom, to encourage writers to consider the ethics of their representations.
Sophie Parkes-Nield has recently completed a PhD at the Centre for Contemporary Legend at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), UK, on the subject of the representation of the calendar custom in contemporary fiction. She is a writer of long and short fiction, life writing, and music journalism, and lectures in Creative Writing at SHU and Leeds Arts University. For more information about Sophie and her work, please visit: www.sophieparkes.co.uk
Tickets £6.00 (£4.00 for Folklore Society members with the Promo Code–log in to the Members area to get the code) from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-calendar-custom-and-contemporary-fiction-tickets-1046736185107?
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Photo: Sophie Parkes-Nield, by Graeme Cooper Photography