On 23 April 2018 the research symposium ‘1968 in reviews’ investigated responses in literary views to the protest events of 1968.
It brought together researchers working in the areas of French, German, Italian, Moroccan, and Romanian literary cultures, and from institutions across the UK and beyond. We learned about underground reviews that had not previously been studied, about the shift in priorities and focus that appeared in reviews after 1968, and about how well-known texts can be read differently when the location of their first publication is taken into account. Presenters showed striking images from reviews, and some of these will be included in an exhibition of texts, images, and photographs of events across and outside Europe in the late 1960s to take place in Birmingham in 2019.
The symposium was organised by Emma Wagstaff in Modern Languages, with the support of the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust.