Cultures of War - Research Seminar

Andrew Hiscock writes ...

Dear Colleagues

I am in the process of setting up a cross-institutional and interdisciplinary research seminar group bringing together scholars working on the question of warfare and its representations in the late medieval and early modern periods.

Whilst violence of all kinds may be seen as a commonplace in many areas of medieval and early modern society, war clearly had a cultural discourse of its own during these periods. It was frequently expressed through complex and sometimes conflicting codes of theorisation, expectation, conduct and representation. It is envisaged that this network of scholars would seek to address the subject from a variety of different angles, with its members (individually and collaboratively) contributing research to a greater understanding of the narrative of military conflict.

Particular strands might include:

Responses to theorisations of war inherited from antiquity
The treatment of war in pedagogic and scholarly environments and texts
Cultural representations of the soldier and military heroism
War and the court
War in the visual / musical arts
Diplomacy
Propaganda and pamphlet culture
Literatures of war (letters, diaries, political instruction etc)
War and reportage
Fictions of war/ War and the Theatre
War, nationhood and identity
War and faith
War, race and imperial projects

Depending on the membership of the group, this research theme could have one or more centres of interest: e.g. Writing War; Anglo-Dutch conflict; War and the Catholic world; cultural representations of the military leader; the civilian experience of war. After an initial period of discussion, targets for this research group could be expressed in terms of an inaugural conference, publication of collected papers and the formulation of collaborative research projects.

For further information or expressions of interest: contact Andrew Hiscock, Department of English, University of Wales Bangor: els408@bangor.ac.uk