Lawrence Durrell Centenary: Durrell and Corfu

2012 will be quite a year for Corfu, with the Edward Lear Bicentenary and the Lawrence Durrell Centenary.

Try to be in Corfu for May and June!

Lawrence Durrell and Corfu: A Centenary Appraisal

20–27 June 2012

As part of the international celebrations of the centenary of the birth of Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990), THE DURRELL SCHOOL OF CORFU will host a one-week seminar Wednesday 20 – Tuesday 27 June 2012, in the Durrell School premises at 11 Filellinon Street, in the historic centre of Corfu Town. The Moderator of this seminar will be Richard Pine, founder of the Durrell School (and now Director Emeritus), and author of Lawrence Durrell: The Mindscape.

There will be three parallel elements:


(1) A specific focus on the topic of ‘Lawrence Durrell in Corfu’: this will concentrate on the biographical details of Lawrence Durrell in the years 1935-39, including the recent DSC/ILDS-published Autumn Gleanings: Corfu Memoirs and Poems by Theodore Stephanides and the biography of Nancy Myers-Durrell-Hodgkin by her daughter Joanna Hodgkin-Hines, Amateurs in Eden (to be published by Virago in early 2012), as well as the established biographies by Ian MacNiven and Gordon Bowker, and Brewster Chamberlin’s Chronology. The defining experience of Corfu in the life of Gerald Durrell will also be celebrated with particular reference to his portrayal of Lawrence in The Corfu Trilogy.


This topic will address the work achieved by Durrell in the years 1935-39, including the composition of two novels, Panic Spring and The Black Book, and his memoir, Prospero’s Cell, which was compiled from notes assembled during the Corfu years. Additionally, the crucial evidence that Durrell mapped out his life’s work as a novelist while living in Corfu will be assessed.


Included in this part of the seminar will be a study session at Kalami, where Durrell and his wife Nancy lived for most of their years in Corfu. Visits to one or more of the villas where Durrell and his wife lived occasionally with the rest of his family will be arranged if possible.


(2) On a more general level, the seminar will also attempt an assessment of Lawrence Durrell as a writer under the headings: novels, poetry, drama, travel writing. One hundred years after his birth, and over twenty years after his death, what is the basis of his literary reputation? Is he likely to be remembered principally for The Alexandria Quartet, or are his other novels (particularly Tunc/Nunquam and The Avignon Quintet) also candidates for inclusion in his permanent canon?


(3) Lawrence Durrell and his Literary Contexts: this element of the seminar will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss Durrell’s work in the period 1935-65 in the context of other writers such as Olivia Manning, Kate O'Brien, Stratis Tsirkas, George Seferis, Anais Nin and Henry Miller.


The programme will include launches of three books: James Nichols’s The Stronger Sex: The Fictional Women of Lawrence Durrell (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011), Joanna Hines’s Amateurs in Eden (Virago, 2012), and Eve Patten’s Imperial Refugee: Olivia Manning’s Fictions of War (Cork University Press, 2012).


In addition to the excursions mentioned in (1) above, there will also be an optional day trip to Butrint, Albania, a spectacular archaeological site in a beautiful setting, and one of the major archaeological sites of the Adriatic region.

Other official celebrations for the centenary