1968 is a momentous year in the global socio-political memory: it has come to be seen as the culmination and epitome of a series of processes involving protest, and the affirmation of previously silent or subaltern causes. Such processes and causes were predicated on challenges to established powers and mindsets, and hence on demands for change, that have had rich consequences in literature and the arts. This conference proposes to address this imaginative wake of the rebellious late 1960s, with a particular but not exclusive focus on word-and-image relations. Of the various strands of socio-political memory associated with the period that this conference is designed to commemorate and ponder, some attention will be given to the developments marking the beginnings (c1968) but also the proclaimed end (1998) of the Northern Irish Troubles. This particular instance of legacies of violent conflict but also fraught peacemaking will be interrogated at a juncture in European history in which national and regional identities are in various ways on the frontline of political discussion once more, with consequences and outcomes that remain unclear.

In sum: the conference avails itself of a commemorative design to consider the impact on  literature and the arts of a much mythologized historical period. We want to showcase and discuss the impact of its defining causes, hopes and regrets on the creative imagination, preferably from a comparatist perspective.