On Thursday last week, the Lower VI English Literature students visited the EMC conference for literature in Euston, London, where we listened to a variety of interesting speakers and panels. The first speaker of the day was Emma Smith who gave a talk answering the question, ‘Was Shakespeare a feminist?’ During the talk, she discussed many different ways to approach the question by touching on anachronism, historical context, genre and biography. The talk took into account the context of the time period and how Shakespeare’s works changed due to certain factors, such as whether there was a King or Queen in power.

Then, we heard from John Mullen talking about novels and their endings. He provided us with many examples of endings from famous novels or novels on the A-Level course, such as Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and The Trial by Franz Kafka and he discussed how the ending of a novel can change the whole experience of reading it. He also briefly touched on the alternate ending to Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, which I personally did not know existed and really helped to emphasise his point on how the ending of the novel is in a lot of cases the most important part. We also heard from a panel who had all studied English Literature at University and they explained their education pathways and how they got to where they are today. The part I found most interesting about the panel was hearing from Kerry Lagan, who studied English Literature at university, but is currently working as an Enterprise Account Director for a large AI tech company. It was fascinating to hear about the different ways in which a degree in English can be used in different fields that you may not expect. After the panel, we heard an in-depth analysis by Sarah Crown of the poem ‘On Virtue’ by Phillis Wheatley and a reading of the poem ‘Girl’ by Victoria Adukwei Bulley by Victoria herself. The final segment of the conference (and my favourite) was a talk by Andy Miller entitled, ‘The Very Angry Caterpillar.’ In his talk, Andy Miller took us on a journey of books he has read and how they have shaped him throughout his life – starting with ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea.’ His passion for the subject made his talk highly captivating and I am excited to read the books which he recommended to us. Overall, the trip helped me learn some new things and have a new perspective on parts of English such as Shakespeare, while also making me realise that English can take you down a variety of different pathways – some of which you may not expect.

Amy, Lower VI