THE EDITION AS ARGUMENT, 1550-1750

16-17 July 2014

Queen Mary, University of London

Call for Papers

Keynote Speakers:

Professor Cathy Shrank (University of Sheffield)

Professor Henry Woudhuysen (Oxford University)

Confirmed speakers: Kate Bennett, Christopher Burlinson, Dan Carey, David Colclough, Alice Eardley, Nick McDowell, Leah Marcus, Valerie Rumbold; Richard Serjeantson, Gary Stringer

From the philology of Lorenzo Valla to twentieth-century debates over copy-text to the new frontier of digital humanities, textual scholars have always argued over the making of meaning. Indeed, argument is integral to the practice of editing: to privilege one reading is to discard another. Bibliographical, historical, and textual choices: these ineluctably and often invisibly inform our larger understanding of the text, the author, and the culture from which they emerge. They can destabilise or confirm our most basic assumptions, from a single word – what is “blew”? – to the nature of the book: what is a text? what is an author? what is an edition?


This landmark two-day conference will draw together experienced and new editors, to analyse and to celebrate editions in progress and to inspire a new generation of editors and editions. Hosted by the AHRC-funded Complete Works of Sir Thomas Browne (forthcoming, OUP), the event will explore the future of editing in universities and offer perspectives from curators and publishers. One direct print outcome will be a handbook on editing sixteenth and seventeenth-century documents.


We invite proposals for 20-25 minute papers on these and other arguments. Topics might include, but are not limited to:


establishing copy-text
representing multiplicity: texts, states, revisions
error and the problem of authorial intention
non-author-centric editions
composing editorial mise-en-page
the role of annotation
editorial theory
the case for new editions and the future of editing
digital humanities
the impact of editing and textual scholarship


Abstracts should be no more than 300 words long and should be sent to Harriet Phillips (h.phillips@qmul.ac.uk) and Claire Bryony Williams (c.b.williams@qmul.ac.uk) by 1^st December 2013.