Shakespeare and Early Modern Emotion


An International and Interdisciplinary Conference

29 June – 1 July 2011
The Andrew Marvell Centre, The University of Hull

This conference will explore the performance and representation of emotion in the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. In the last decade, scholars have been increasingly interested in the cultural history of emotions, arguing that they should be regarded as ‘social phenomena’ rather than inward experiences. At the same time, we have seen a resurgence of interest in the ethical and philosophical aspects of literary texts, and a return to thinking about ideas of ‘human nature’.

How did Shakespeare and his contemporaries respond to and/or shape early modern conceptions of emotion? How do early modern plays and poems speak to current debates about emotion, culture, and what it is to be human? Do early modern texts suggest that emotions are bound up with language and culture, or can we make a case for emotions as a transhistorical or even ‘universal’ category?

Confirmed keynote speakers are:
Prof. Neil Rhodes (St Andrews)
Dr Andy Mousley (De Montfort)
Dr John Lee (Bristol)

The deadline for submission of papers has now closed. For further information please contact Dr Richard Meek r.meek@hull.ac.uk


Supported by The Society for Renaissance Studies

The Intellectual Life of Early Modern Sussex

The Department of English and Creative Writing, University of Chichester and
The Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Sussex



A one day symposium
June 29th 2011, 11.00 – 6.00
The Assembly Rooms and George Bell House, Chichester Cathedral.
Programme:
10.00 – 11.00:    Tea and Coffee
11.00  –  11.15:    Welcome and Introduction
11.15 –    13.15:    Session One:
    Caroline Adams (West Sussex Record Office) ‘Elizabeth I in Sussex’
  Michael Questier (Queen Mary’s) ‘Cowdry Park in the 1620s and the Catholic         Episcopalian plot to rule the World’
13.15  – 15.30:     Lunch and an opportunity to view the Cathedral Library
15.30  –17.30:     Session Two
Brian Cummings (Sussex) ‘Arminianism, anti-Calvinism and the culture of Lancelot Andrewes and Samuel Harsnett’
Andrew Foster (Kent) ‘Chichester Cathedral Library, 1540 – 1700’

To register contact Paul Quinn p.quinn@chi.ac.uk or Mat Dimmock  m.dimmock@sussex.ac.uk

The Global Dimensions of European Knowledge, 1450-1700

An international interdisciplinary conference sponsored by The Leverhulme
Trust, the Society for Renaissance Studies, the Royal Historical Society, the
Journal of Early Modern History and Birkbeck, University of London.

24-5 June, 2011
Birkbeck, University of London

Registration for the Global Dimensions conference is now open. To book your
place, please visit

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/history/news/global-dimensions-of-knowledge

The approximate start and end times for each day are:
Friday 24 June:
0900 Coffee and registration
0945 Welcome and Keynote lecture
to
1800 Keynote lecture
1900-2100 Drinks reception

Saturday 24 June:
0900 Coffee and registration
0930 Panel sessions
to
1700 End of roundtable session

A provisional timetable will be mounted on the website in due course. For
further enquiries, or to be added to the mailing-list, please contact the
conference organizer, Dr Surekha Davies, ats.davies@bbk.ac.uk

Global Dimensions of European Knowledge, 24-5 June, 2011
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/history/news/global-dimensions-of-knowledge

North West Renaissance Drama Colloquium

A day of papers and discussion to be held in Manchester, 23rd June 2011

Proposals are invited for papers to be delivered at the first North West Renaissance Drama Colloquium. The event will bring together researchers and students from all institutions and at all career stages for a day of papers and discussion. A short list of plays being spoken on will be circulated in advance of the event and all delegates will be encouraged to come prepared to share ideas on interpretation and teaching. The venue in Manchester is to be confirmed.

A keynote lecture will be given by Professor Nicholas Royle (Sussex), author of The Uncanny, How to Read Shakespeare, After Derrida and a novel, Quilt.

To express interest in attendance or to propose a 20 minute paper on any aspect of Renaissance or Restoration drama (preferably focussing on a single play), please email a 300 word abstract by 08.04.11 to Naya Tsentourou and James Smith at:
renaissance.drama@manchester.ac.uk

New Network: Southern Early Modern and Medieval Postgraduate Network (SPEM)

CALL FOR PAPERS: LAUNCH OF NETWORK

The Southern Early Modern and Medieval Postgraduate Network (SPEM) is a new pan-institutional group based in the South of England. It aims to provide a forum for postgraduate students to discuss their research with their peers, to facilitate the exchange of ideas and to provide practical help and advice from established academics. Events will be held featuring a mixture of papers by researchers, workshops and discussions led by established academics and other experts.

To that end, SPEM will be holding a one day conference at the University of Chichester on June 23rd 2011. This event will feature papers by postgraduate students working in the medieval and early modern periods, and presentations on the topics of publication and non-academic careers for the postgraduate researcher. Professor Andrew Hadfield (University of Sussex, editor Renaissance Studies) will discuss the process of publication.

We are accepting proposals for papers on any area of research in the medieval and early modern periods. The conference is open to all; the presentations on publication and careers will be general rather than specific to the medieval and early modern periods.

Papers should be 20 minutes long. For further information or to send abstracts (250 max), please email p.quinn@chi.ac.uk or c.a.parsons@sussex.ac.uk by May 31st 2011.


The Power of the Word: Poetry, Theology and Life 17-18 June 2011

An International Conference
The Power of the Word: Poetry, Theology and Life 17-18 June 2011 
Heythrop College, University of London


This conference is organized by Heythrop College and the Institute of 
English Studies, University of London.



Keynote Speakers: Professor Gianni Vattimo (University of Turin), 
Professor Helen Wilcox (University of Bangor), Professor M. Paul 
Gallagher (Gregorian University, Rome), Professor Paul Fiddes 
(University of Oxford), tba.
Other invited speakers include: Professor John Took (UCL), Professor Jay 
Parini (Middlebury College, Vermont), Prof. Georg Langenhorst (University of Augsburg), Olivier-Thomas Venard (Professor Ecole 
Biblique, Jerusalem), Dr Antonio Spadaro (Gregorian University, Rome), Dr Stefano Maria Casella (IULM University, Milan), Dr Florian Mussgnug (UCL).


Conference organizers: David Lonsdale (Heythrop College, University of 
London) and Dr Francesca Bugliani Knox (Heythrop College, University of 
London): f.knox@heythrop.ac.uk; d.lonsdale@heythrop.ac.uk
Conference committee: Professor John Took (UCL), Dr Anna Abram (Heythrop 
College), Dr Antonio Spadaro (Gregorian University, Rome), Dr James 
Sweeney (Heythrop College), David Lonsdale (Heythrop College), Dr 
Francesca Bugliani Knox (Heythrop College), Dr Michael Kirwan (Heythrop 
College).


Religion has always been part of Western literary traditions. Many 
canonical literary texts engage extensively with theology and religious 
faith and practice, and theological and spiritual writers make liberal 
use of literary genres, tropes and strategies. Recent work in philosophy 
of religion, theology, the study of religions and literary criticism has 
once again brought to the fore issues which arise when literature, 
faith, theology and life meet, whether in harmony or in conflict. This 
international conference aims to:


 foster a dialogue among scholars in theology, philosophy, spirituality 
and literature and between these and creative writers;

 discuss the ‘truth’ of poetry and the ‘truth’ of theology in relation to each other; 
 reassess the idea of poetry as a criticism of life; 
 discuss the relationship between faith, theology and the creative 
imagination through an examination of theoretical issues and the study of specific texts; 
 examine the importance of poetry for personal and social identity, 
social cohesion and relations between faiths and cultures.


The organisers invite scholars currently working in the subject field to 
offer panel papers (30 minutes plus 10 minutes discussion) to address 
the following titles and themes. Please email
abstracts of 500 words max. by Friday 14 October 2010 to: 
f.knox@heythrop.ac.uk and d.lonsdale@heythrop.ac.uk


Titles and themes of panels:
1. Why poetry matters
 The activity of reading 
 ‘Tolle, lege’: reading as transformative 
 Poetry and the development of the reader 
 The purpose and value of religious poetry 
 Is religiously committed literary criticism possible, desirable, necessary? 
 Specific writers and texts


2. Poetry, faith, religion and theology
 Faith and the poet 
 Poetry and poets in theological perspective 
 Religious experience and the experience of poetry 
 Devotional poetry 
 What makes a work of poetry theologically or religiously significant or relevant? 
 Metaphor, symbol, faith and theology 
 Is the writer/poet as such theologically significant? 
 Specific writers and texts

3. Poetry and the mystical
 Relationships between mysticism and poetry 
 Mystical poetry 
 Poets as mystics, mystics as poets 
 Specific writers and texts


4. Imagination, faith and theology
 The place of imagination in religion, faith, theology, spirituality 
 The ‘sacramental imagination’; poetry as sacramental 
 Reason and imagination in faith and theology 
 Theology, spirituality and the poetic imagination
 Specific writers and texts


5. Poetry and sacred texts
 ‘Secular’ and ‘sacred’ poetic texts 
 ‘Secular’ poetry and sacred texts 
 Specific writers and texts

6. Poetry and society
 Does poetry make anything happen? 
 Poetry, literary criticism and ethics 
 Poetry and politics 
 Specific writers and texts

Call for Papers: Conversion Narratives in the Early Modern World

Call for Papers: Conversion Narratives in the Early Modern World
June 9th-11th 2011
University of York, UK



Keynote speakers: Irene Fosi (Chieti) and Nabil Matar (Minnesota)


The period between 1550 and 1700 was one of widespread religious conversion, prompted by the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, encounters between European states and the Ottoman Empire, and the expansion of global trade and exploration. This conference will investigate the variety of ways in which men and women created stories about conversion. It will ask not only what constituted conversion (whether understood as a change or as an intensification of faith) in this period, but also how narrative shaped people’s expectations of religious change and enabled them to articulate their experience in a variety of ways.


The conference forms part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project ‘Conversion Narratives in Early Modern Europe, 1550-1700’. We welcome submissions that deal with any aspect of this topic, and are particularly keen to receive papers that will help us to develop a global perspective. The project is interdisciplinary in scope, and we invite not only literary and historical, but art historical, anthropological, and other approaches.


Possible questions may include but need not be limited to:
How did the experience of conversion differ according to region, faith, status, age and race?
What genres of narrative were used? How did these interact with the particular circumstances in which people converted?
Did men and women have different understandings and experiences of conversion?
How did conversion narratives circulate? How do manuscript and print accounts differ from each other?
How popular were these texts? How were they appropriated and revised? What was their audience?
How did conversion relate to other border-crossings, including trade, diplomacy, slavery, exploration and colonization?
What role did the material world play in shaping conversion?
How did the experience of conversion relate to ideas about the self?
What methodologies are appropriate to the study of conversion and narrative?


Abstracts of c. 300 words should be submitted to conversionnarratives@york.ac.uk by 1st December 2010. Submissions of panels and individual papers will be equally welcome. For more information about the ‘Conversion Narratives’ project visit www.york.ac.uk/conversion

Annual Lecture of the Sussex Centre for Early Modern Studies.


Chowen lecture theatre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School
University of Sussex
Falmer, England BN1 9PX
United Kingdom

http://www.bsms.ac.uk/home/maps.php


All welcome
ALAN STEWART
"Francis Bacon in Collaboration"
It has long been known that, early in his career, Francis Bacon wrote 
letters, treatises, and entertainments for his friend and patron, 
Robert Devereux, earl of Essex.  But if the young Bacon "wrote" Essex, 
then might not somebody else have "written" the mature Bacon?  I 
analyze the materials relating to the production of Bacon's later 
writings--and his treatment of writing in /New Atlantis/--and argue 
that we need to reconsider Bacon's oeuvre as a radically collaborative 
undertaking.

Alan Stewart is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at 
Columbia University, and International Director of the Centre for 
Editing Lives and Letters in London. He is the author of /Close 
Readers: Humanism and Sodomy in Early Modern England/ (1997), /Hostage 
to Fortune: The Troubled Life of Francis Bacon/ (with Lisa Jardine, 
1998), /Philip Sidney: A Double Life/ (2000), /The Cradle King: A Life 
of James VI and I/ (2003), and most recently, Shakespeare's Letters/ 
(2008).  He has just completed work on volume 1 of the Oxford Francis 
Bacon (containing Bacon's early writings, 1584-1586), and is 
co-editing, with Garrett Sullivan, the Blackwell /Encyclopedia of 
English Renaissance Literature.



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