Movement & Motion | NTU English Graduate Research Symposium

In his poem, “Burnt Norton”, T.S. Eliot dwelled on “the still point of the turning world”, where “at the still point, there the dance is”.

Our world has been turning – and continues to turn as a hyperconnected globe marked by fast-paced consumer culture and transnational media flows. Yet its movement and motion has grown increasingly out of joint due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the escalating state of international politics. As the world continues turning, it is crucial that we take a step back to immerse ourselves into its “still point”, as we remind ourselves not only of the permeability of national and human bodies, but the importance of reckoning with the effects of our globalized world as well.

Our symposium theme, “Movement & Motion”, speaks to the various displacements, shifts, and migrations which literature and the arts contend with in the 21st century, from technological advancements to social justice movements, among others.

With the inaugural NTU English Graduate Research Symposium, we hope to foster a welcoming space for emerging literary scholars and writers working across local institutions, and to set in motion a flourishing network of ideas and perspectives.

Organising Committee

Graduate Students

Amrita Iyer

Chwa Yi Jie

Daniel Kong

Jamie Uy

Jasmine Tan

Kimberly Han

Nadia Alang

Sophia Hyder

Faculty Advisors

Assoc. Prof. Jane Wong Yeang Chui
Asst. Prof. Christopher Trigg

Supported by the School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University
ntuengsymposium@outlook.com

An excerpt from T.S. Eliot's "Burnt Norton"

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.