Colloquium on the 'Legacy of the Will' - Call for Papers

Organised by The Early Modern Seminar in Scotland (EMSIS)
in conjunction with the School of Humanities at Strathclyde
University.  Saturday, 26th March 2011

Will's semantic slipperiness fascinated the Renaissance: in all manner of
English and Scots texts of the period we find 'Will too boote, and Will in over-
plus'. The structural conceit of the opening line of John Donne's poem, 'The
Will' exemplifies a key thematic construct to be found in much early modern
literature and a prevalent  intellectual thread in the culture from which this
literature emerges. Donne's poem - this willed enactment of the speaker's last
will and testament to the world he will shortly leave behind in death -
encapsulates the polyvocal qualities of the human 'will' and all that it signifies.
The rich intellectual legacy of the European Renaissance that we, as critics
and researchers, struggle to understand is constructed from the physical and
literary legacies that writers such as Donne, Erasmus, Calvin, Elizabeth I,
Miarlowe, Middleton and others have bequeathed us. It is from these legacies
of authorial 'will' that our very idea of what represents or constitutes the early
modern period has been shaped.

This colloquium will explore the extraordinary malleability of the 'will' and its
various semantic permutations in the context of such issues as subjectivity,
power,  logic, desire, freedom, volition, wit, wisdom, theology and metaphysics.
One of its main purposes is to to investigate what power and significatory
force the 'will' possesses, its limitations and the consequences of its lack of
a stable or fixed location, viewed in the context of the aesthetic, political,
theological and philosophical traditions that informed early modern
literature.

We would welcome 20 minute papers on the early modern 'will' followed by 10
minutes for questions. Various facets of the 'will' that might be investigated are
listed below, though this is not intended to exclude other perspectives on this
topic.

Will as desire or volition: wilfulness, will as voluntas, will as membrum
pundendum (male or female), possession of one's will, excessive willing,
transgressive will.

Theological and philosophical wills: freedom of the will, the negation or
undoing of the will, will as futurity, theological debates on the relationship
between the 'will' and fate or predestination; volition and animality.

Literary and legal wills: the exercise or abdication of authorial will or
intentionality, will as testament, framing legal wills, the interplay between
'will' and 'wit'; w/Will as a proper name and authoritative mark.

You are invited to submit an abstract of not more than 250 words
by 14th February, 2011, to a.thorne@strath.ac.uk<mailto:a.thorne@strath.ac.uk>. You will be notified whether your paper has been accepted by 21st February.




God’s Word in English : The King James Version as Translation

Date: 2425 March 2011
Venue: Antwerp and Leuven, Belgium
Dead line for abstracts: 30 November 2010

The year 2011 marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version,
undoubtedly the most important English translation of the Bible. Though this version is today often associated with Fundamental Evangelical Christian circles, its historical importance and its cultural and artistic impact cannot be overlooked. To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the publication, SIG VERBI, an international research group of CETRA under the auspices of the faculties of Theology and Arts of the K.U.Leuven and the Department of Translation Studies of the Lessius University College (Antwerp), is holding a conference. The conference fits into the events to commemorate the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, organized by Refo500, of which the K.U.Leuven is a project partner. The aim of the conference is to present research on this remarkable version of the Bible primarily from the perspective of translation, including the effects this piece of translation have exercised on various areas of religious and popular culture, and especially on the theory and practice of translation.

Confirmed speakers include, among others, prof. dr. Stephen Prickett (University of Kent),
prof. dr. Gordon Campbell (University of Leicester), prof. dr. Guido Latré (U.C.Louvain & UGent), prof. dr. Amanda Piesse (Trinity College) and prof. dr. Tibor Fabiny (Budapest).

Thursday 24 March, 2011 in Lessius (Antwerpen)
1. Historical Session
 The Low Countries as Historical Context of the KJV
 The origin/history of the KJV within the history of (English) Bible translations
 How did contemporary political issues effect the translation of the KJV?
 How did the KJV effect contemporary politics?

2. Literary/Cultural Session
 The Low Countries as translation milieu
 The effects of the KJV as a translation on literature/music/performing arts ,etc.
 The influence of the KJV on later biblical and non‐biblical translations (e.g. on Jewish translations of the TaNaK, English translations of the Qur'an)
 Good/bad practices in (Bible) translation that are influenced by the KJV
 The use of KJV quotations and allusions in secular texts and their translations

Friday 25 March, 2011 at the Faculty of Theology (K.U.Leuven)
3. Exegetical Session
 Contemporary exegesis & its influence on the translation of the KJV
 The influence of the KJV on contemporary and later exegesis

4. Practical Theology Session
 KJV & the translatability of religious texts
 KJV & feminist/post‐colonial studies
 KJV & inter‐religious dialogue
 Fundamentalist Bible readings & King James Onlyism

The above list is not meant to be exclusive or restrictive. All suggestions for papers relating to
the topic of the conference’s theme will be taken into consideration. We welcome paper
submissions from graduate students.

It is anticipated that the allocated time for each paper will be 30 minutes, with additional time
for questions/discussion.

Please submit your abstract (max. 500 words) by 30 November 2010 to Dr. Gergely Juhász:

Notification of acceptance by 15 December 2010.

Details of accommodation in Leuven or in Antwerp and a booking form will be available soon
from the conference organizers and on the websites of the Faculty of Theology
(http://theo.kuleuven.be/page/conf_kingjamesbible/) and of Lessius University College
(www.lessius.eu). For further enquiries please contact either of the organisers Dr. Gergely Juhász (gergely.juhasz@theo.kuleuven.be) or Dr. Paul Arblaster (p.e.t.arblaster@hszuyd.nl). It is hoped that (selected) papers from the conference will be published in a volume edited by Dr Arblaster and Dr Juhász.

22nd SEDERI International Conference: Public and Private Selves in Early Modern Culture

Faces, Façades and Frontispieces: Public and Private Selves in Early Modern Culture

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

Madrid, 23-25 March 2011

Call for Papers


The Organising Committee of the 22nd SEDERI International Conference and the Spanish and Portuguese Association for English Renaissance Studies welcomes proposals for 20-minute papers on topics related to the main conference theme and other aspects of Early Modern culture. English is the official language of the conference.

The following keynote speakers have already confirmed their attendance:

Andreas Höfele (Universität München)

Graham Holderness (University of Hertfordshire)

Coppélia Kahn (Brown University)

Gail Kern Paster (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington)

Stephen Orgel (Stanford University)

Juan Antonio Prieto Pablos (Universidad de Sevilla)



The conference theme, ‘Faces, Facades and Frontispieces: Public and Private Selves in Early Modern Culture”, is an invitation to explore the connections that link bodies, selves, objects and buildings throughout the long seventeenth-century.



Topics that would be welcome include:

· Early modern representations: books, bodies and buildings

· Explorations of dichothomies: private/public, interiors/exteriors

· Interactions of the self and the body: passions and feelings

· The place of passions and emotions in early modern culture

· The book as body and the body as book

· The face as frontispiece and the frontispiece as face

Please include the following information with your proposal:


-the full title of your paper;

-a 200-250 word abstract of your paper;

-your name, postal address and e-mail address;

-your institutional affiliation and position;

-any AV requirements you may have;

-your SEDERI membership status (i.e. present member, membership to be renewed, non-member, membership application submitted/to be submitted*).



*To join SEDERI, go to www.sederi.org



Participants may also want to propose their own thematic panels, to include papers delivered by 3 or 4 participants. Panel convenors should submit their proposal in broad observance of the criteria itemised before for individual proposals.



Please submit your proposal by e-mail to the organising committee of SEDERI 2011 at sederi2011@flog.uned.es



Please send your submission in plain text in the body of your e-mail and as an attachment in a Word document.



Relevant dates:



Deadline for proposals: 10 January

Confirmation of acceptance: 20 January

Deadline for registration:25 February (a late registration fee will apply beyond this date)



Conference fees:



SEDERI members: 90 € (regular registration) 120 € (late registration)

Non-members: 125 € (regular registration) 130 € (late registration)

Students (student affiliation required): 65 €



Registration details will be posted online in January 2011.



All delegates are responsible for their own travel arrangements and accommodation. Relevant information will be provided later on the conference website.


Renaissance Graduate Seminar one-day symposium

On Thursday 17 March the Renaissance Graduate Seminar will be hosting a 
one-day symposium to showcase the research of the faculty's final-year 
Renaissance PhD students. Professor Brian Cummings (University of Sussex) 
will act as invited external respondent. 

Papers will range across such subjects as history of the book, religion, 
classical influence, music, film adaptation, and the recreation of the 
past. Speakers are Joanna Bellis, Sheldon Brammall, Simon Jackson, Alison 
Knight, Lucy Razzall, Dunstan Roberts, Simon Ryle and Harriet Phillips. 

The day event will run from 9.30am to 4.30pm, in GR06 in the English 
faculty, and will be followed by concluding remarks over wine in the 
faculty's social space. Lunch, tea and coffee will be provided. Attendees 
are also welcome to join us for an inexpensive dinner with the respondent 
at 6pm. A more detailed schedule will be circulated nearer the day. 

All are welcome, and the day will be free, but registration is essential. 
If you would like to attend, please send your name to Sheldon Brammall 
(sb658@cam.ac.uk) by 14 March, also indicating whether you will join us for 
dinner. 

'"Idle and Disorderly Persons": The Representations and Realities of the Mobile Poor in Early Modern England

University of Warwick on Saturday March
12th, 2011.

This one-day, interdisciplinary conference will showcase the current state of
scholarship in both social history and literary studies on the subjects of
vagrancy, migration and mobility, the criminal history of petty offenses, and
studies of the contemporary perceptions of poverty and deservingness. Practices
of literary criticism and textual analysis will be intertwined with social and
legal history, in order to produce a set of interdisciplinary perspectives.
Broad yet demanding themes such as 'transience in early modern culture', 'the
poor as social threat', and 'new understandings of early modern migration' will
allow participants to cross disciplinary boundaries, expand possible research
horizons and blend academic approaches to the past.

Our six panellists will be: Audrey Eccles, John Gilmore (Warwick), Andrew McRae
(Exeter), Joanna Innes (Oxford), Tim Hitchcock (Hertfordshire) and K.D.M. Snell
(Leicester). The Plenary Address will be given by A.L. Beier (Illinois State
University).

For further information, contact David.Hitchcock@warwick.ac.uk


UCL Centre for Early Modern Exchanges: England and Spain

 4.30pm on Wed 9 March, in Foster Court 243 

The speakers and papers are as follows:

Alexander Samson (UCL, Spanish), Translating the Reign of Philip and Mary

John Ardila (Edinburgh), The English Reception of Don Quixote in the
Performing Arts

Catherine Scheybeler (KCL), Jorge Juan y Santacilia's mission to London:
An example of naval espionage in the eighteenth century




The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene event is taking place from 6.30pm on Monday 7th March 2011 in Hall One at Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG. The event itself will start promptly at 7.00pm.

Edmund Spenser’s work is the great epic poem of Elizabethan England, complex and brilliant, revealing both the spiritual energy and the dark intolerance of his age. This event will provide an insight into The Faerie Queene and Spenser’s world view, and a thought provoking exploration of his continuing relevance in the 21st Century. Featuring:

David Fuller, Professor of English and former Orator of Durham University, taking us inside the remarkable world of Spenser’s stanza.

Bart Van Es, of St Catherine’s College Oxford, an eminent scholar of Spenser, on the significance of The Faerie Queene.

New verse by distinguished poets Jo Shapcott, Michael Symmons-Roberts, Andrew Shanks, and Ewan Fernie.

Monawar Hussain, Islamic chaplain at Eton College, on the resonances of The Faerie Queen in Muslim communities.

Original drama piece by Simon Palfrey, directed by Elisabeth Dutton, both of Oxford University, performed by an ensemble of professional actors, Oxford students, and inner-city comprehensive schoolchlidren.

Composer and virtuoso Tim Garland, playing his own specially commissioned music inspired by The Faerie Queene.

And, the celebrated Choir of Royal Holloway, University of London, conducted by Rupert Gough,
performing music from the time of Spenser.

The Faerie Queene event is being held in partnership with ‘The Faerie Queen Now’ Project, a year long collaboration celebrating the legacy of Edmund Spenser’s work, with a generous grant from the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme, and support for the music from the PRS for Music Foundation and LCACE.

How to buy tickets

Booking now open online, by phone or in person from the Kings Place box office:

Tickets cost £9.50 if booked online via www.kingsplace.co.uk
Otherwise tickets cost £11.50.
Box Office 020 7520 1490

For enquiries relating to your booking please contact tickets@kingsplace.co.uk. To check ticket availability please use the online booking service.

For general enquiries or comments, please use our online feedback form or email info@kingsplace.co.uk