Alexander the Great in Medieval and Early Modern Culture

8–10 March 2007

A conference organized by the Centre for Medieval Studies, together with the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, at the University of Toronto. The life of Alexander the Great is one of the most frequently treated subjects of the Middle Ages. It figures prominently in Latin epic and the vernacular literatures as well as in historiography and the fine arts. Contact: Markus Stock, Univ. of Toronto (markus.stock@utoronto.ca), or Stefanie Schmitt, Univ. of Frankfurt am Main (schmitt@lingua.uni- frankfurt.de).

The Shakespeare Jahrbuch 2008: CFP

The Shakespeare Jahrbuch 2008 will be a special issue devoted to 'Silence, Sound and Voice'. Shakespeare's plays do not merely consist of a series of monologues and dialogues, but also include music, noises, and silence. We should thus like to suggest a shift of critical attention from the meaning of the words we hear to the physical, the emotional and the cognitive dimensions of hearing as well as to the aesthetics of silence, sound and voice. In addition, Shakespeare‚s plays highlight the crucial relevance of hearing and represent the ear as an ambivalent organ. Many characters display a strong desire to listen or to eavesdrop, but they also become vulnerable by their unquestioned belief in the stories they hear. At the same time, the community constitutes itself through collective hearing and this applies to both the society represented on stage as well as to the audience in the theatre. The plays thus also shed light on 'acoustic world' of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, which Bruce Smith has studied in his seminal book on the soundscapes of early modern England: social practices of hearing, the cultural meanings of noise and the 'order of sounds'. And last but not least, the focus on Shakespeare and sound includes studies of the acoustic features of individual productions as well as of Shakespeare adaptations for the ear.

The editorial board invites submissions which might take up issues such as

'The rest is silence': the meaning and aesthetics of silence; strategies of silencing; characters falling silent
'Her voice was ever soft, gentle, and low': voice and character; performative and aesthetic aspects of voice; body and voice; gendered voices; text and voice
'If music be the food of love, play on': music and singing in Shakespeare's plays; music and text
'To split the ears of the groundlings': noise in the plays and on the stage; the acoustics of the stage; the relationship between visual and aural aspects of the performance
'With a greedy ear': listening and eavesdropping in Shakespeare's plays; the desire to hear; poisoning the ear
'The noise of battle hurtled in the air': the soundscapes of early modern England and the early modern theatre
'Open your ears ∑ when loud Rumour speaks': Shakespeare and the acoustic culture of early modern England; cultural techniques of hearing; rumours and gossip; collective aspects of hearing; listening and power
'Make passionate my sense of hearing': audio-books of Shakespeare's plays; Shakespeare in music.

Manuscripts (of about 5,000 words) should be sent to the editor by March 31, 2007.

Prof. Dr. Sabine Schülting
Redaktion des Shakespeare Jahrbuchs
Institut für Englische Philologie
Freie Universität Berlin
Gosslerstr. 2-4
D-14195 Berlin

e-mail: shjb@philologie.fu-berlin.de
fon: +49-30-838 72346

'Sex and the City': Inter-personal Relations in Britain 1500-1800

25 October 2006, Nottingham Trent University

The Forward early modern social history symposium provides an opportunity for postgraduates and academics to discuss their research. 'Sex and the City' aims to encourage considerations of inter-personal relations in Britain during the early modern period. Topics to be explored could include, but are not limited to, urban/rural comparative studies, homosexuality, bisexuality, infertility, courtship, place and space, lewd and bawdy texts/images, clothing and appearance, venereal disease, voyeurism and pornography, religious attitudes to sexual conduct. We are please to announce that Dr Martin Ingram (Brasenose College, Oxford) will be addressing as keynote speaker. Proposal of 300 words are invited.
Contact: Jennie Jordan, jenniejordan_forward@hotmail.com
School of Arts, Communication and Culture, Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham NG11 8NS
01158483545
Deadline for call for papers: 20 September 2006

Research Seminar on "Shakespeare, Appropriation, and the Ethical"

Shakespeare Association of America, San Diego, April 5 - April 7, 2007

Call for Papers: In what ways have the fields of Shakespearean interpretation, appropriation, translation, performance (film, theatre, online, TV, in English and worldwide, then and now) been informed by ethical questions? Are there patterns in the invocation of ethical concerns? What resources are available in critical theory that we might bring to bear on ethics and questions of authority, authenticity, and aesthetics? Participants may address these theoretical and other relevant questions, or problematize the ethical presumptions of all modes of confrontations including literary criticism as an act of appropriation.

Seminar Leaders: Ton Hoenselaars (Utrecht University) and Alexander C. Y. Huang (Pennsylvania State University)

Format: Registrants in SAA research seminars are expected to complete significant work in advance of the meeting: research papers, common readings, and bibliographic compilation. Seminars are appropriate for college and university faculty, independent scholars, and graduate students in the later stages of their doctoral work.

Register for this seminar and become a member of SAA online at:http://www.shakespeareassociation.org/

SAA Student Travel Awards
Twenty-five $300 awards will be given to dissertation-level students whose research will be most enhanced by seminar participation. See this website and the June 2006 bulletin for more information. Applications are due 15 November 2006. Details online: http://www.shakespeareassociation.org/

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.

Shakespeare: Violence & Terror

A Symposium
Saturday 5 August 2006

A Symposium hosted by Globe Education and initiated by Professor Richard Wilson (Cardiff), the 2006 International Globe Fellow, will be held to discuss the subject of Shakespeare: Violence & Terrorism. This symposium aims to bring together Shakespeare scholars, theatre historians and theologians in three planned sessions:

* 1606: Theatre in a Time of Terror
* Staging terror in Shakespeare's Playhouse
* From Terror to Toleration: Shakespeare for Today

The symposium will be held on Saturday 5 August 2006. By chance, this new date will be almost the exact 400th anniversary of the suggested first performance of Macbeth (at Hampton Court on August 7, 1606).

If you would like to attend the symposium, please RSVP to Farah Karim-Cooper by email (farah@shakespearesglobe.com) no later than Friday 14 July 2006.

In the evening there will be a performance of Coriolanus. Please contact the box office if you would like tickets: 0207 401 9919 or visit www.shakespeares-globe.org

CFP: Restoration Drama

2007 NEMLA (Northeast MLA) convention, Baltimore, Maryland
March 1-4, 2007

From the comedy of manners to the heroic drama, theatre in the latter part of the 17th century revived with a flourish. This NEMLA Board-sponsored panel seeks paper proposals (approximately 500 words) on new critical and theoretical approaches to Restoration and early 18th-century drama. Please include a brief biography and direct queries and submissions (due date: Sept. 15th, 2006) to Rita Bode by email: rbode@trentu.ca.

For further information on NEMLA and the convention, please see the NEMLA website: www.nemla.org.

John Donne Society 22nd Annual Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS

THE 22nd ANNUAL DONNE CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD FEBRUARY 14-18, 2007 AT THE LOD & CAROLE COOK CONFERENCE CENTER, LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, BATON ROUGE, LA#

Papers on any aspect of Donne are welcome.

COMPLETE PAPERS (*1* copy; 8-11 pages maximum, as an email Word attachment, please include your e-mail and mailing addresses) MUST BE SUBMITTED BY *October 15, 2006* TO:

Professor Eugene R. Cunnar
Department of English
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM 88003
ecunnar@nmsu.edu

The Intellectual and Cultural World of the Early Modern Inns of Court

The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
14-16 September 2006

An international, interdisciplinary conference to be held at the Courtauld Institute, the Temple Church, Lincoln's Inn Chapel and Old Hall, and Middle Temple Hall, London, exploring the historical, political, religious, artistic, and literary contexts of the Inns of Court, circa 1550-1640.

Speakers and participants include: Dr Hugh Adlington, Professor Malcolm Airs, Dr Jayne Archer, Dr Andrew Ashbee, Dr Margaret Aston, Professor Sir John H. Baker, Professor Gordon Campbell, Celia Charlton, Dr Tarnya Cooper, Professor Bradin Cormack, Dr Cliff Forshaw, Dr Mark Girouard, Dr Elizabeth Goldring, Dr Andrew Gurr, Karen Hearn, Dr Paula Henderson, Professor Steve Hindle, Professor Lorna Hutson, Dr Sarah Knight, Professor James Knowles, Professor Nigel Llewellyn, Professor Richard McCoy, Professor Margaret McGlynn, Professor Alan H. Nelson, Dr Damian Powell, Professor Wilfrid Prest, Dr Paul Raffield, Dr Barbara Ravelhofer, Dr Clare Rider, Dr Emma Rhatigan, Dr Agnieszka Stecowicz, Dr Simon Thurley, Professor Robert Tittler, Dr Geoffrey Tyack, Anthony Wells-Cole, and Professor Jessica Winston.

Registration (full): £100
Registration (student): £50
Optional drinks reception in Lincoln's Inn Old Hall on 14th September: £25. Registration fee includes conference fee, refreshments, and organised visits to
the Inns of Court, including tea and light snacks in Middle Temple Hall on 15th September. Delegates are expected to make their own arrangements for lunches and accommodation.

For further information and a booking form, please contact the conference organisers, Dr Jayne Archer (jea@aber.ac.uk), Dr Elizabeth Goldring
(elizabeth.goldring@warwick.ac.uk), and Dr Sarah Knight (sk218@le.ac.uk), or visit
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/news_and_events/conferencesannouncements/inns

Places are limited; please book early to avoid disappointment.

Renaissance Paratexts, Univesity of York, July 27-28 2006

Speakers: Christy Anderson, Guyda Armstrong, Tom Berger, Danielle Clarke, Matthew Day, Juliet Fleming, Steven Galbraith, Hester Lees-Jeffries, Mike Jones, Peter Lindenbaum, Sonia Massai, Randall McLeod, Marcus Nevitt, Mary Partridge, Helen Pierce, Neil Rhodes, Jason Scott-Warren, William Sherman, Helen Smith, Wendy Wall, Louise Wilson.

In Paratexts, Gérard Genette describes a preface as ‘a threshold, or -- a word Borges used apropos of his -- a "vestibule" that offers the world at large the possibility of either stepping inside or turning back'. This conference invites participants to linger on the threshold, exploring the ways in which Renaissance paratexts, broadly considered, shape the reader's approach to the text, and the text's approach to the surrounding world.

The conference will be held in the historic King's Manor in the centre of York, close to the York Minster library, and several of York's excellent antiquarian and second-hand bookshops. Registration will be charged at £85, with a reduced fee of £65 for students and unwaged. There will be an additional charge of £25 for delegates wishing to attend the conference dinner on Thursday 27th July. Please note accommodation is not included in the conference fee.

For more details, please contact Helen Smith (hs25@york.ac.uk) or Louise Wilson (elw107@york.ac.uk).

World Shakespeare Conference 2006 - India

This year’s conference to be held on 30 December 2006---03 January 2007, will negotiate the problematics associated with readings of Shakespeare in terms of multiple cultural variants. Central theme of the World Shakespeare Conference 2006 will be Signifying Shakespeare: Re-presentations in History and Society . It will therefore seek to address the following issues :

Oriental Shakespeares
Shakespeare in Translations/Adaptations/Appropriations
Shakespeare in Film
Shakespeare in Stage Performance
Future Shakespeares
Shakespeare from the Margin
Shakespeare and Culture Studies
Subaltern Shakespeare
Political Shakespeare
Shakespeare in the Asia Pacific
Euro-American Shakespeare
Shakespeare in South-East Asia

Send your abstract in not more than 300 words to

Amitava Roy : ipslind@cal2.vsnl.net.in
Deb Narayan Bandyopadhyay : smb1@vsnl.com
Subir Dhar : dharal69@vsnl.net

Deadline for sending the abstract is 30 June 2006

Details at http://shaksoc.bravehost.com/shaksoc.html

The VIII World Shakespeare Congress

Sunday 16 – Friday 21 July 2006 at Brisbane City Hall, Queensland, Australia.

The Congress brings together international and national experts to address a wide variety of topics of significant interest in the area of Shakespeare studies. Under the banner of World Shakespeare 2006, Queensland celebrates the Congress in a multi-facetted, diverse year of affiliated Shakespeare-related activity. A series of performance, education, community and exhibition events will take place.

Details at http://www.shakespeare2006.net/index.html

Exile in the English Revolution and its Aftermath, 1640-1685

An interdisciplinary conference to be held at Senate House, London
28-29 July 2006
Hosted by the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London

The conference will explore the experiences of and responses to exile and defeat in the years 1640-1685, with reference both to physical displacement and inner withdrawal, retreat and retirement. The time-frame encourages an examination not only of Royalists but also of onetime Parliamentarians after the Restoration, including regicides.

Speakers: John Adamson (Cambridge), Jane Clark (independant scholar), Sue Clarke (Australian National University), John Cronin (European University Institute), Chris D'Addario (Gettysburg College), Gillian Darley (independent scholar), Paul Davis (University College, London), Martin Dzelzainis (Royal Holloway), Karen Hearn (Tate Britain), Ann Hughes (Keele), Laura Jacobs (Birkbeck), Marika Keblusek (Leiden), James Loxley (Edinburgh), Philip Major (Birkbeck), Sarah Mortimer ( (New College, Oxford), Annabel Patterson (Yale), Jason Peacey (History of Parliament), Joad Raymond (UEA), Timothy Raylor (Carleton), Julie Sanders (Nottingham), David Scott (History of Parliament), Nigel Smith (Princeton) and Robert Wilcher (Birmingham).

For information on registration please telephone Joanne Grubb, Institute of English Studies, on 020 7862 8675, or email ies@sas.ac.uk

3rd Shakespeare's Globe Theatre History Seminar: Stage Blood Roundtable

Shakespeare's Globe
10.00am - 1.00pm
Thursday 13 July 2006

Enter in skirmish with bloody Pates
(Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI)

Sertorio brings in the flesh with a skull all bloody, they all wonder
(T.B.,The Bloody Banquet)

Enter Virginius with his knife, that and his arms stript up to the elbowes all bloudy
(John Webster, Appius and Virginia)

Seest thou this goare that cleaveth to my face?
From hence nere will I wash this bloody staine,
Til Ardens hart be panting in my hand
(Arden of Faversham)

Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,
Like to a bubbling fountain stirred with wind,
Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,
Coming and going with thy honey breath
(Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus)

Globe Education invites you to a Stage Blood Roundtable organised by the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre History Seminar. 

The staging of bloody spectacle still poses many questions for scholars. Was stage blood used on the early modern stage? If so, in what form would it have appeared? Reading stage directions such as those in 1 Henry VI, The Bloody Banquet and Appius and Virginia tells us something about practice, but they tell us nothing about the materials used to construct stage blood. Was it indeed pig‚s blood as some have suggested? Could they have used more stylised options, such as red ribbons? Are plays like Macbeth and Titus Andronicus perhaps laden with blood imagery because it wasn‚t practical to use Œreal‚ blood on the stage?

The participants - two scholars and two theatre artists - will address these questions and others; they will propose theories and discuss their practical experience in using blood on the Renaissance stage.

For further information about this seminar please contact Farah Karim-Cooper (farah@shakespearesglobe.com) or Lucy Munro (l.munro@engl.keele.ac.uk).

Places are free to bone fide scholars, researchers and theatre practitioners, but must be booked in advance by emailing Susie Walker (Events Officer, Globe Education) at edevents@shakespearesglobe.com.

A performance of Coriolanus will follow the seminar at 2.00pm. Tickets must be purchased from the Globe Box Office on 020 7401 9919.

Blogs

For some early modern musings, try ...

http://roy25booth.blogspot.com/

RENAISSANCE MEDIEVALISMS

An interdisciplinary conference to be held at The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies Victoria College, University of Toronto 6-7 October 2006.

This interdisciplinary conference will examine the presence of the medieval past in the culture of Renaissance Europe. While the rejection of the medieval heritage and the renewal of classical ideals have traditionally been used to define the Renaissance, the undeniable continuum of medieval culture into the early modern period is undisputable, especially in light of recent scholarship on "early modern" Europe. Clearly, then, the transference and adaptation into the Renaissance of patently "medieval" elements of European civilization from Boethius to Boccaccio needs further investigation in order not only to validate their continued presence, but also to determine exactly how and what they contributed to the "renewal" we call the "Renaissance."

Further details from konrad.eisenbichler@utoronto.ca.