‘I take thee at thy word’: Trust in Renaissance Literature

What qualities compose trust and confidence in the Renaissance?  What signs call it into question?  This seminar seeks to identify points of congruence and contention in sixteenth and seventeenth century notions of trust and how they might be betrayed. From the stage Machiavel who discloses his plans to the audience to the kinsman who pledges his fealty, or the lover who exchanges his faithful vow, how did trust differ across such different domains as religious and political life or familial relations?  It is hoped that papers will cross a range of genres including early modern poetry, prose, and drama, as well as major and minor authors. The intended outcome will be to publish suitable papers in a special issue of Textual Practice.

This seminar will be part of the interdisciplinary MatchPoints Conference 2014 at Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, 22-24 May 2014 (www.matchpoints.au.dk).  Plenary speakers include Robert Putnam (Harvard University), Eric Uslaner (University of Maryland), Gerd Achenbach (Lessing-Hochschule zu Berlin, Philosophische Praxis), Mikael Rostila (Stockholm University), Alison Findlay (Lancaster University), Svend Andersen (Aarhus University),Cheryl Mattingly (University of Southern California), Sverre Raffnsøe (Copenhagen Business School).

Organised by Joseph Sterrett

Please send 150 word proposals to engjs [at] hum.au.dk by 15 January 2014.