David Bowie: The Man, The Musician and The Muse: A Review of our Bowie’s Books Conference
On the 13th and 14th of January 2017, English and Creative Writing at the University of Northampton hosted an interdisciplinary conference on the theme of David Bowie and his relationship to literature…
On the 13th and 14th of January 2017, English and Creative Writing at the University of Northampton hosted an interdisciplinary conference on the theme of David Bowie and his relationship to literature. The result was a stimulating international academic conference with papers, presentations and round table discussions covering Bowie’s effect on literature, his personal literary inspirations and thematic similarities between Bowie’s work and certain literary genres and movements.
The conference, organised by Professor Richard Canning and Dr Sam Reese, began with a keynote from Associate Professor in Popular Music Nathan Wiseman-Trowse. Wiseman-Trowse took a postmodern approach to Bowie, interrogating the creation of his persona and its cultural immortality — as it is sustained and produced by the continuous media coverage and timelessness of his creative out-put. Building on this approach to Bowie, Dr Julie Lobalzo Wright spoke on the ‘David Bowie is …’ exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum, which is now touring museums across the planet, and includes Bowie’s interest and inspiration in and from literature. Wright, who specialised in star studies at Warwick University, discussed the functionality of Bowie as many personas and how these function both independently and collectively as a product. Taking this forward, and bringing in the field of fan studies, Wright then discussed the ability for fans to create their own Bowie, taking ownership and resulting in the personas being inscribed with an endless multiplicity of meanings.
Many papers dealt with literature that can be interpreted to have inspired Bowie, sharing similar themes to that of his own work and identity. Thom Robinson, a William Burroughs specialist from Newcastle University, read Bowie’s gender identity, androgyny and bisexuality alongside the Beat generation novels City of Night by John Rechy’s (1963) and Hubert Selby Jr’s Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964). Robinson argues that the two texts, both included by Bowie on his list of 100 books, heavily influenced Bowie’s representation of his gender identity and the inclusion of gay American subcultures within his works - the latter similar to that represented in Selby’s and Rechy’s novels. Alongside this paper, Dr Sam Reese from the University of Northampton, interrogated the relationship between the literature of Paul Bowles, particularly the 1949 novel The Sheltering Sky a scene from which Reese drew comparisons with Bowie’s final work Black Star bringing together both works shared themes of death and absence.
J.R. Ackerley and Christopher Isherwood Biographer Peter Parker gave a keynote on Bowie’s time in Berlin in the mid 1970s as an escape from his drug addiction. Parker focused on Bowie’s visit and its inspiration and relationship to novelist Christopher Isherwood’s time there 30 years previously. Parker spoke on the allure of the city, its effect on Bowie both personally and creatively and the similar and differing reasons why Bowie and Isherwood went there.
Dalhousie University member Shawna Guenther’s suggestion of Bowie as a literary figure, supported through her readings of Bowie’s lyrics aside from the music, and their boundary breaking meanings especially in respect to notions of identity and self-hood, gave a new angle on the focal point of the conference. It also fed further into the multiple meanings David Bowie can have attracted to him. Guenther’s openness about the personal effect Bowie’s words and music have had on her paved the way for a roundtable discussion which included writer Carol Hayman of Ladies Of Letters fame, who shared her memories of the man she knew in the 1960s and the early theatrical productions she witnessed him in while both were in the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh.
Hayman was joined on the roundtable discussion by Adrian Berry, author of the renowned play ‘From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads’ which focuses on a young troubled teenager with an absent father, who has an adventure across London finding the answers he was looking for in relation to his father through the music and life of David Bowie. Berry spoke on the history of the play, from its beginnings to its approval by Bowie himself, the latter evident in the show’s ability to use many hits from Bowie’s musical back catalogue.
Attendees of the conference were lucky enough to be in the audience of a special performance of the play followed by a question and answer session with Berry and acting star of the one man show Alex Walton. The performance was a true highlight of the conference and was an engaging, emotive and effortless watch especially for the Bowie informed audience present.
The conference was an great experience, with a wide variety of intriguing academic approaches to Bowie and literature combined with impressions and accounts from those who knew him and finally a theatrical production which encompassed the power and immortality of David Bowie’s art and music. The one very clear thing to take away from the conference was the notion that Bowie, his art and music can be anything and everything to anyone — a true credit to any artist.
Anthony Stepniak
