Region, Religion and Early Modern Literature: A One-Day Conference

Institute of English Studies, University of London, 2 April 2009

Keynote Speakers: Tom Healy, Willy Maley

Confirmed Speakers include: Rebecca Bailey, Francisco J. Borge, Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen, Helen Hackett

Thanks to the generous support of the Society for Renaissance Studies, a number of postgraduate travel bursaries are available for postgraduates wishing to participate in this event. Preference will be given to those postgraduates speaking at the conference; to this end, the conference organiser is republishing the CFP (see below), and interested postgraduate students are requested to submit a proposal by 28 November 2008. Further information is available from the conference organiser.

Call For Papers: The first decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed an explosion of interest in religious texts and communities among scholars of early modern literature. While this is in part a reaction to global politics – religious politics have been in the media spotlight for the best part of the decade – the intensity of the interest also derives from more local concerns, from a professional dissatisfaction with the failure of earlier generations of historicist critics to illuminate fully the relationship between religion and literature in the early modern period.

This one-day conference aims to build on this renewed interest in early modern religion, to explore the significance of ‘regional’ religious and/or textual communities in early modern Britain and Ireland. Papers are sought which address the conference themes, although contributions will be particularly welcome which focus on any of the following: the development of sectarian identities and/or religious intolerance; the relationship between the ‘religious’ and the ‘secular’; the network of discourses surrounding religion, ethnicity and culture which emerge in the early modern period and/or their links with contemporary issues; the regional context of both canonical writers and lesser-known texts and communities; the political/intellectual implications of critical/historical methodology.

250-300 word proposals should be sent to the conference organiser by 28 November 2008.

Conference Organiser: Dr David Coleman, School of Arts and Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, UK (david.coleman@ntu.ac.uk)

Enquiries: Jon Millington, Events Officer, Institute of English Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1 7HU; tel +44 (0) 207 664 4859; email jon.millington@sas.ac.uk