'Katherine Philips 350: Writing, Reputation, Legacy'

Registration has now opened for the conference 'Katherine Philips 350: Writing, Reputation, Legacy', which will be held in Marsh's Library, Dublin, between 26 and 28 June 2014. This conference marks the 350th anniversary of the publication of Katherine Philips's Poems (1664) and of her death the same year. It will include plenary lectures by Professor Elizabeth Hageman (co-editor of the forthcoming OUP edition of Philips's poems, plays and letters), Professor Sarah Prescott (Aberystwyth University), and Linzi Simpson (principal archaeologist at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin), as well as sessions on Philips's poems and translations, publishing history, archipelagic contexts, and the posthumous reception of her work. The programme also includes an optional visit to the site of Smock Alley Theatre, where Philips's play Pompey was staged in 1663.

Conference registration is available at http://www.conference.ie/Conferences/AddRegistration.asp?Conference=252. The conference is supported by the Society for Renaissance Studies, who have funded a small number of postgraduate bursaries (fee waivers). To express interest in applying for a bursary, please write to the co-organisers, Dr Marie-Louise Coolahan and Dr Gillian Wright, at katherinephilips350@gmail.com. Any other questions about the conference should also be directed to this address.
The closing date for registration is 1 May 2014. Places at the conference are limited, so early registration is strongly advised. 

Programme 26-28 June, 2014
Philips and Print Publication: The Stationer’s Perspective
Editing Katherine Philips for Women Poets of the English Civil War
11.30-1.00. Panel 2: Literary Contexts
‘All oppositions are contiguous’: Hermetic Metaphysics in the Poetry of Katherine Philips
Katherine Philips’s ‘great affection and respect’ for French Heroic Romance
Epithalamic Poetics in Katherine Philips and John Milton

Can a woman deserve the name of enemy? Gender, War, and Law in Katherine Philips’s Corneille Translations
Katherine Philips’s Translation of ‘La Solitude de St Amant’: Between Mediation and Appropriation
Translatio imperii, Translatio studii: Conquest and Collaboration in Katherine Philips’s Dramatic Translations
From 19th-century Church to 17th-century Theatre: The Archaeological Discovery of Smock Alley
‘And why this Vault and Tomb?’ Memorial Culture and Friendship in Katherine Philips’s Poetry
Religion in Our Love: Aemilia Lanyer, Katherine Philips, and the Politics and Poetics of Devotional Eroticism
Religious Allusions and the Royal Image in Katherine Philips’s Poems

The Couplet versus the Poem: Late Seventeenth-Century Women Reading Katherine Philips
‘I long to know your Opinion of it’: The Serendipity of a Norton Inquiry and a Malfunctioning Timing Belt
KP in Connecticut: The Surprising Afterlife of Pompey’s Ghost
2.00-3.30. Panel 3: Ireland
Katherine Philips’s Dublin Admirers: ‘Philo-Philippa’ Unmasked
Making the Case for Artaban: Examining New Play Development in Ormond’s Court through the work of Robert Leigh
‘Behold this Creature’s form and State’: Katherine Philips and the Early Ascendancy
Spes Alunt Exsules: Clandestine Communications in the Verse Letters of Katherine Philips
Mary Beale (1633-1699), Katherine Philips, and the Art of Friendship

Katherine Philips 350: Writing, Reputation, Legacy Marsh’s Library, Dublin
Day 1: Thursday, 26 June
9.30-10. Registration and Welcome. 10-11. Panel 1: Publishing and Editing
Ben Crabstick, Independent Scholar
Sarah Ross, Victoria University of Wellington
11.00-11.30: coffee break
Sajed Chowdhury, King’s College London
Alice Eardley, University of Southampton
Paula Loscocco, Lehman College/CUNY
1.00-2.00 lunch

2.00-3.30. Panel 3: Translation

Penelope Anderson, University of Indiana
Line Cottegnies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Deborah Uman, St John Fisher College
3.30-4.00: coffee break 4.00-5.00. Plenary:
Linzi Simpson, Archaeological Director, Smock Alley Theatre excavations
6.00-7.00. Visit to Smock Alley Theatre (optional)
Day 2: Friday, 27 June
9.30-11.00. Panel 1: Religion and Memory
Katia Fowler, University of Chicago
Bronwyn Wallace, University of Pennsylvania
Hui-Chu Yu, National Pingtung University of Education
11.00-11.30: coffee break

11.30-1.00. Panel 2: Afterlives

Victoria Burke, University of Ottawa
Andrea Sununu, DePauw University
Nathan Tinker, Independent Scholar
1.00-2.00: lunch
Andrew Carpenter, University College Dublin
Patrick Tuite, Catholic University of America
Lee Morrissey, Clemson University
4.00-5.00. Plenary:
Professor Sarah Prescott, Aberystwyth University Katherine Philips and Wales
Conference Dinner (optional)
Day 3: Saturday, 28 June
9.30-11.00. Panel 1: Friendship
Sonya Cronin, Trinity College Dublin
Helen Draper, Courtauld Institute

Scott Howard, University of Denver

‘That Noble Flame’: Literary History and Regenerative Time in Katherine Philips’s Elegies and Society of Friendship
11.00-11.30: coffee break 11.30-1.00. Plenary:
Professor Elizabeth H. Hageman, University of New Hampshire ‘Katherine Philips, Her Bookes: 1664-2014’
1.00. End of conference 

Errors! - CFP deadline 14 April 2014

Error and Print Culture, 1500-1800:

A one-day conference at the Centre for the Study of the Book, Oxford University

Saturday 5 July 2014

Call for Papers

'Pag. 8. lin. 7. for laughing, reade, languishing.'

Richard Bellings, A Sixth Booke to the Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (1624), ‘Errata’

Recent histories of the book have replaced earlier narratives of technological triumph and revolutionary change with a more tentative story of continuities with manuscript culture and the instability of print. An abstract sense of technological agency has given way to a messier world of collaboration, muddle, money, and imperfection. Less a confident stride towards modernity, the early modern book now looks stranger: not quite yet a thing of our world.

            What role might error have in these new histories of the hand-press book? What kinds of error are characteristic of print, and what can error tell us about print culture? Are particular forms of publication prone to particular mistakes? How effective were mechanisms of correction (cancel-slips; errata lists; over-printing; and so on), and what roles did the printing house corrector perform? Did readers care about mistakes? Did authors have a sense of print as an error-prone, fallen medium, and if so, how did this inform their writing? What links might we draw between representations of error in literary works (like Spenser's Faerie Queene), and the presence of error in print? How might we think about error and retouching or correcting rolling-press plates? What is the relationship between engraving historians' continuum of difference, and letter-press bibliographers' binary of variant/invariant? Was there a relationship between bibliographical error and sin, particularly in the context of the Reformation? How might modern editors of early modern texts respond to errors: are errors things to correct, or to dutifully transcribe? Is the history of the book a story of the gradual elimination of error, or might we propose a more productive role for slips and blunders?

            Proposals for 20-minute papers are welcome on any aspect of error and print, in Anglophone or non-Anglophone cultures. Please email a 300-word abstract and a short CV to Dr Adam Smyth (adam.smyth@balliol.ox.ac.uk) by 14 April 2014.

Rome and Home: The Cultural Uses of Rome in Early Modern English Literature

Ancient Rome had a pervasive hold over the early modern imagination and its influence can be discerned in a variety of sources, discourses, and practices during the period. Episodes from Roman history provided the inspiration for numerous plays and narrative poems, as well as offering an effective means of interrogating such political and philosophical positions as republicanism, absolutism and stoicism. Roman history also provided a host of good and bad exemplary figures, as well as highlighting the dangers of civil war and political factionalism. Roman authors like Seneca, Juvenal, Horace, and Terence also had a considerable influence on the development of various literary genres during the period and many historical and political works were influenced by both the style and content of such commentators as Cicero and Tacitus. The influence of ancient Rome also had a bearing upon English national identity. The myth of the translatio imperii, as promulgated in the histories of Geoffrey of Monmouth, was often appropriated in propaganda as a means of legitimising England’s imperial ambitions. James I also set out to refashion himself as an Augustan ruler whose iconography owed much to the resonance of imperial Rome.

This special issue will explore the influence of ancient Rome upon the literature and culture of early modern England and the related issues it provoked. We therefore welcome proposals for articles that consider any aspect of this subject; topics for discussion may include (but are not restricted to):

·      Roman history as a narrative source in early modern drama, satire, and narrative poetry.

·      Translation, rhetoric, and the influence of Latin.

·      The influence of republicanism and stoicism and the bearings of Roman political ideas upon debates relating to sovereignty, citizenship, and absolutism.

·      The relationship between ancient Rome and English (or British) national identity.

·      The use of imagery associated with the Roman Empire in royal propaganda and iconography.

·      The influence of Roman sources in debates relating to political factionalism and civil war.

·      The resonance of Roman culture compared with the influence of ancient Greece.

·      The links between Rome and Catholicism.

Please send abstracts (250-300 words) to Professor Lisa Hopkins (l.m.hopkins@shu.ac.uk), Dr Daniel Cadman (d.cadman@shu.ac.uk), or Dr Andrew Duxfield (a.duxfield@shu.ac.uk) by Friday 2 May 2014.

New series from Ashgate

Cultures of Play, 1300-1700 

Series Editor:  Bret Rothstein, Indiana University

Dedicated to the ludic Renaissance in Europe, this series serves two
purposes. First, it recounts the history of early modern wit, humor, and
games, from backgammon and tops to Papal bulls and theological tractates.
Second, in addressing its topic broadly, Cultures of Play, 1300-1700 also
provides a forum for reconceptualizing the play elements of early modern
economic, political, religious, and social life. We welcome proposals from a
range of disciplines, including history, religious studies, the history and
philosophy of science, literature, theater history, philosophy, and the
history of art and visual culture.  The series publishes original research
written in English, including both single author volumes and collections of
original essays.

Proposals should take the form of either 
1) a preliminary letter of inquiry, briefly describing the project; or 
2) a formal prospectus including:  abstract; brief statement of critical
methodology, table of contents; sample chapter; estimate of length; estimate
of the number and type of illustrations to be included; a c.v.

Please email your letter or proposal to the Ashgate contact for this series:
Erika Gaffney, Publishing Manager, egaffney@ashgate.com

Call for Papers: Special Issue of Shakespeare on “Shakespeare and Jonson”

The critical pairing of Jonson and Shakespeare might not always be one of the most illuminating comparisons in literary history, but it is one of the most enduring. The distinctiveness of the Jonson-Shakespeare pairing lies in the often implicit assumption that these two somehow function as each other’s alternative; that between them they define a crucial axis of literary possibility – between learning and imagination, or inspiration and labour. The comparison has often served to elevate Shakespeare over Jonson, on grounds sometimes less aesthetic than crudely moral - Jonsonian envy or ethical failure used to highlight Shakespeare’s generosity or singular virtue. This, in turn, has generated responses which are sometimes guilty of partisanship or defensiveness.

These tendencies are still visible today in academic and popular evocations of “Shakespeare and Jonson”. Yet in other ways the pairing itself might seem archaic. The vastness of the Shakespeare industry has ensured that the Bard (when not assumed to be beyond compare) has benefited from a much less restrictive set of comparisons. For Jonson, the picture is more mixed. He has benefited from attention in areas with a less obviously Shakespearean relevance, such as the court masque, and unlike the Oxford Middleton the new Cambridge edition of Jonson is not modelled on a Shakespearean template. To that extent, he is no longer automatically fated to a disadvantageously comparative approach. In other ways, though, he is receding from view. The RSC has not staged a Jonson play for almost a decade, while the Globe has never mounted a full production of one of his works.

What value, then, is to be found in reviving the old double act? How, now, can they speak to each other? What can their conjunction reveal that might otherwise remain obscure? This, in a year that sees the quatercentenary of the publication of Jonson’s first folio and of Shakespeare’s death, is what we seek to find out with this special issue of Shakespeare on “Shakespeare and Jonson”. We would be happy to consider essays from any approach, although we would wish them to avoid merely retreading the old pas de deux. Essays might shed light on the early years of their comparison, or episodes in its history that illuminate it anew. We would be interested, too, in essays seeking to bring Shakespearean and Jonsonian thematic or methodological concerns together. What might happen if Shakespearean concerns are transferred to the Jonsonian corpus, and vice versa? Examples of possible approaches might include, though are not limited to:

-       Staging and performance history, especially recent critical developments. Is there any value in considering “Jonson in parts”, for example?

-       Page and stage: in recent years, Shakespeare studies has debated the relative merits of approaching the plays as the work of a man of theatre and/or a ‘literary’ dramatist – how might Jonson appear in the light of such debates?

-       Religion, Catholicism and Judaism (why, for example, is Shakespeare’s entirely speculative “Catholicism” wrangled over while Jonson’s conversions receive comparably little interest?)

-       Nationality and ‘Britishness’;

-       The politics of monarchy, republicanism, or the monarchical republic;

-       Genders and sexualities

-       Historicism and presentism: do Shakespearean debates here illuminate the Jonsonian corpus or concerns?

-       Literary heritage, including neoclassical, Greek and/or medieval influences. The influence of post-medieval, vernacular drama upon Shakespeare is well-documented, while Jonson is often considered a consciously neoclassical dramatist. Is it time to revisit this distinction?

-       Literary celebrity. Shakespeare’s reputation as national bard is firmly cemented, but the recently-discovered account of Ben Jonson’s walk to Scotland suggests a kind of “royal progress” between London and Edinburgh. Might this breathe new life into old debates? What might we learn about early modern ideas of literary fame, its social and political significance, or the history of the author as celebrity?

Other ways of staging the conjunction are no doubt possible, and we would be delighted to consider them. Please send expressions of interest or abstracts for papers of 6500-7000 words to james.loxley@ed.ac.uk and fionnuala.oneill@soton.ac.uk by Friday 16^th May 2014.

Call For Papers

Sir David Lyndsay, A Satire of the Three Estates

An International Symposium

University of Edinburgh, 6-8^th June, 2014

This two-and-a-half day, residential conference at the University of Edinburgh is sponsored by the ‘Staging and Representing the Scottish Court’ project, which put on performances of The Three Estates at Linlithgow Palace and Stirling Castle in June 2013 (see the website, http://www.stagingthescottishcourt.org/ for further details).

The conference will involve academic papers, a panel discussion of The Three Estates in contemporary Scotland, workshop performances by actors involved in the June 2013 production, and the chance to visit the new Three Estates exhibition at Stirling Castle and witness a community production of the 1540 Interlude by the Linlithgow Players.

Proposals are invited for short (20 minute) papers on any aspect of Sir David Lyndsay’s play, A Satire of the Three Estates, its theatrical, historical, or cultural contexts.

Proposals (a one-paragraph summary of the topic to be covered) should be sent in the first instance to Professor Greg Walker. (greg.walker@ed.ac.uk)