Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus hosts
International Conference - Rediscovering Rebecca West

September 13-14

Brooklyn, N.Y. — Rebecca West, the novelist, critic and journalist -- whose travel writing took her from Yugoslavia to Mexico -- will be the focus of the first international conference about her work.

"Rediscovering Rebecca West: An International Conference" will take place September 13-14 at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, in the Health Sciences Building near Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues in downtown Brooklyn.

Organizers hope the two-day event will strengthen recognition of West as a leading writer of the past century. West scholars as well as West’s personal secretary and several relatives are expected to participate.

"This conference -- the first of its kind really -- should help coalesce the scattered scholarship on West into a coherent body of work and foster an intellectual community that will, in turn, improve the quantity, quality, and appeal of West scholarship," said Bernard Schweizer, assistant professor of English at the Brooklyn Campus.

"And, perhaps we will hear what really happened between Rebecca West and Charlie Chaplin after they broke into the Central Park boathouse!" Schweizer mused, noting more seriously that West left her mark on New York City as a reviewer for the New York Herald and contributor to the New Yorker.

Growing interest in West’s work is evidenced by publication within the last two years of West's "Selected Letters," edited by Bonnie Kime Scott; a lost early novel by West, "The Sentinel," edited by Kathryn Laing; and most recently, "Survivors in Mexico," a collection of West's previously unpublished writings about Mexican history, art, and politics, which Schweizer edited.

"These publications alone have stirred up a good deal of renewed interest in West, " said Schweizer. Recently reissued were West's novel "The Fountain Overflows," and her writings about the Nuremberg trials, "A Train of Powder."

Among West’s best known works is "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" (1941), her controversial observations of ethnic animosities in Yugoslavia.

"The clash between Christian and Islamic civilizations was a mainstay of West’s writings; she is also intensely critical of Islam, while at the same time expressing a rebellious rejection of the Christian God," Schweizer said. West also deserves to be remembered as a leading figure in woman's fight for the vote, for artistic recognition, for respect, and for equal opportunity, he said.

The program includes the premiere of Carl Rollyson’s play, "Rebecca West: A Saga of the Century," Saturday, September 13, 7 p.m., at the Brooklyn Campus Triangle Theater. Tickets are $10 ($5 with student I.D.)

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Some 30,000 students currently are enrolled at the university’s three residential and three regional campuses, including nearly 11,000 at the Brooklyn Campus. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.