Role and Rule: History and Power on Stage

London, The Globe Theatre, 6-8 February 2009Organized by Globe Education and the Universita di Padova,
with the support of the Fondazione Cariparo

This conference means to discuss the various modes of representation of monarchy in Tudor and Stuart England: more specifically, it focuses on how Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists look at the present and past state of England, investigating through the representation of past English monarchs the role of Majesty and the relationship between power and people. Besides, we mean to discuss the celebration and comment upon the present state of England that early modern dramatists and writers offer through masques, allegorical representations, and other theatrical forms such as public speeches and proclamations.

The conference will be opened by Professor Stephen Orgel (Stanford University).

You are invited to submit a proposal for a twenty-minute paper.

Suggested topics:

1. Shakespeare's history plays:
- revisiting the past: the English fifteenth century as a model for contemporary politics
- ostlers and courtiers: high and low in the Henry IV plays
- "Know you not I am Richard?" Shakespeare's kings and the "mirror for princes" tradition
- mob scenes: the role of the people in Shakespeare's history plays

2. Staging queenly:
- Jacobean drama and its representation of female rule
- representing queenship in the Jacobean masque
- the shadow of Elizabeth: the memory of the Queen
- male and female power

3. Self-representation:
- Elizabeth and her writings
- James's triumphal entry in London
- political theory and its negotiation of the past

Proposals should not exceed 500 words and should be accompanied by a short CV and a list of publications.

Please send your proposals by the 15th of July 2008 to these email addresses:

alessandra.petrina@unipd.it (prof. Alessandra Petrina, Universita di Padova)
farah.k@shakespearesglobe.com (dr Farah Karim-Cooper, Globe Education)