Source: BBC

Revisiting the British New Wave, The University of Sheffield, April 20th, 2023

Supported by the British Association of Film and Television and Screen Studies, and the Sheffield Centre for Research in Film

2023 will see Lindsay Anderson’s centenary, and the 60th anniversaries of This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson, 1963) and Billy Liar (John Schlesinger, 1963), the two films that marked the apparent conclusion of the British New Wave. This short lived cycle and the critical debates that surround it, remain hugely influential to narratives of class, sex, realism, and region in British cinema and its scholarship. Given that these debates were largely established over 30 years ago, a reassessment of the New Wave is long overdue.

Contributions are sought on – but not limited to – the following areas:

  • Reassessments of the British New Wave through examinations of race, class, gender, and sexuality;
  • the role of the writer in the British New Wave;
  • working-class stardom and the British New Wave;
  • the British New Wave and creative labour;
  • explorations of the ‘Long New Wave’, through accounts of the New Wave’s antecedents and descendents;
  • methodological approaches which challenge dominant readings of the cycle;
  • the New Wave’s relationship with and influence on television drama and other cultural forms;
  • the New Wave’s critical reception;
  • the New Wave’s legacies in contemporary screen cultures;
  • the geographies of the British New Wave, and its relationships with discourses of region and nationhood.

Abstracts – no longer than 300 words, and accompanied by a short biography – should be sent to d.forrest@sheffield.ac.uk by January 31st, 2023.

Note: this is an in-person event with no provision for remote participation.

Our keynote speaker will be Professor Melanie Williams (UEA), whose forthcoming book on A Taste of Honey (Tony Richardson, 1961) breaks new ground in its account of the class, gender, and creative dynamics of the British New Wave.

The event will also incorporate a visit to the University of Sheffield’s Special Collections, where delegates will be able to review selected material from relevant archival holdings held at the University of Sheffield; namely, the Richard Hoggart, Barry Hines, and Jack Rosenthal collections.