2014 marks the 350th anniversary of a key year in English-language women's literary history. 1664 witnessed not only the publication of Katherine Philips's supposedly unauthorised Poems but also her untimely death at the age of 32. 'Katherine Philips 350: Writing, Reputation, Legacy' - an international conference to be held at Marsh's Library, Dublin - will celebrate this important anniversary in a city where Philips spent the most productive and high-profile year of her literary career. It will offer the opportunity not only to re-evaluate Philips's literary achievements, but also to reassess her influence on later seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century women's writing.
The conference programme will include plenary lectures by Professor Elizabeth Hageman (University of New Hampshire) and Professor Sarah Prescott (Aberystwyth University). It will also include a visit to the site of Smock Alley Theatre, where Philips's play Pompey was performed in 1663.
Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
The conference programme will include plenary lectures by Professor Elizabeth Hageman (University of New Hampshire) and Professor Sarah Prescott (Aberystwyth University). It will also include a visit to the site of Smock Alley Theatre, where Philips's play Pompey was performed in 1663.
Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Texts, canon and circulation
- Philips's life and afterlife
- Language and form
- Letter-writing
- Drama
- Translation
- Philips as reader and critic
- Archipelagic contexts
- Politics and religion
- Friendship and sexualities
- Literary networks
katherinephilips350@gmail.com by 31 August 2013. Please also include your name, institutional affiliation (where applicable), and email address.
A selection of essays based on papers from the conference will be published in a special issue of Women's Writing in 2015.
Further information about the conference will be posted at katherinephilips350.wordpress.com.
We look forward to seeing you in Dublin in 2014!
Marie-Louise Coolahan and Gillian Wright, conference organisers
