Essays on Readers, Reading, and Reception in Devotional Literature and Practice

Call for Papers
Edited by: Kathryn Vulic, Susan Uselmann, C. Annette Grise

We are currently soliciting proposals for essay-length studies about readers, reading, and reception in devotional literature and practice, with particular interest in England in the later Middle Ages. This collection of essays draws on current scholarly interest in medieval readers, reading, and reception that extends across such disciplinar bounds as art history, architecture, social history, and literature studies. We seek proposals for papers that investigate a wide variety of approaches to and examples of devotional readers, reading or reception in the later Middle Ages.

Papers in the collection can look at the intersection between devotion and reading or reception issues in general, as well as explore more specifically how these issues are complicated by particular circumstances such as audience or gender. Essays that examine reading models and theories, cultural and historical practices, and gender issues are also encouraged. Possible avenues of exploration include, but are not limited to:

ï Connections between devotional practices and reading practices
ï Representations of readers and reading in devotional texts
ï Literary production and reception of devotional texts and images
ï Manuscripts and early books as devotional objects and as the spur to devotional practices
ï Individual readers and patrons of devotional texts

Please submit a proposal of no more than 500 words by September 30, 2006 by email or regular mail. US submissions to Susan Uselmann, Department of English, Rhodes College, 2000 North Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112-1690,(FAX (901) 843-3728; email: uselmanns@rhodes.edu. Canadian and international submissions to Cathy Grise, Dept. of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4L9; fax: 905-777-8316; email: grisec@mcmaster.ca. Inquiries welcome in advance of the deadline: Kathryn Vulic, Kathryn.Vulic@wwu.edu. Completed
papers will be due summer 2007.