Space on the Elizabethan Stage, 1576-1599

30 March 2012, University of Leeds

Following the opening of The Theatre in 1576, an innovative relationship developed between the newly-permanent space of the stage and the physical place of the theatre. The performative possibilities were quickly grasped and exploited by the men who came to write for the professional theatres, as they experimented with new ways of staging space in the Elizabethan playhouses: men such as Thomas Kyd, Thomas Lodge, Christopher Marlowe, George Peele, Robert Wilson, and the young William Shakespeare.

We invite proposals for individual papers (max. 20 minutes) on the processes and factors which created a sense of space and/or place in the Elizabethan theatre – including the language of the play-text, the physical presence of the players and playgoers, the actual performance space, and the technologies of the theatre. Possible topics may include (but are certainly not limited to) the following:

• The relationship between the real space of the theatre and imagined space;
• The influence of real factors such as the presence of the audience or even the weather upon the construction of stage space;
• The theatrical representation of geographical difference;
• The material construction of place through props and costume;
• The role of genre in the creation of stage-space;
• Inter-textual geography and the transmission of poetic geography between texts.

Proposals (max. 300 words) are welcome from both established scholars and postgraduates, and should be sent by Friday 20 January 2012 to the conference organisers Dr Laurence Publicover and Dr Chloe Preedy at: elizabethan.stage@gmail.com. We very much look forward to receiving your proposal.

Catholic Aesthetics

4.30pm, Wed 21st March, Roberts Building 110, UCL

Peter Davidson (Aberdeen), Rubens's design for the 1635 'Arch of the Mint' and the Virgin of the Andes?

Lilla Grindlay (University College London), ‘“Some out of vanity will call her the Queene of heauen”: polemical representations of the Virgin Mary in early modern religious discourse’

All welcome. For maps and a useful route finder, seehttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/locations/ucl-maps/. 

For more on the UCL Centre for Early Modern Exchanges, please see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/eme/.

From Stage to Screen: Shakespeare Adaptations in India

Shormishtha Panja (Professor of English at the University of Delhi and President of the Shakespeare Society of India)

1-2pm, Wednesday 21 March 2012

Fincham 204,
Department of English&  Creative Writing,
Digby Stuart College,
Roehampton University,
Roehampton Lane
London SW15 5PH

Renaissance Reincarnations

University of York, Saturday 17 March 2012

William Shakespeare – a lonely nobody furiously writing away in his garret, or an actor with a penchant for kingly parts? Elizabeth I – a jolly monarch with a partiality for sweets and a fondness for comedies involving dogs, or a cunning strategist thwarting the plans of her dangerous rivals? Philip Henslowe – enterprising money-lender or creative producer?

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, we remain fascinated with Renaissance lives. This fascination has given rise to some of the most popular and admired works of fiction and liveliest critical debates of our time. While past studies have discussed Renaissance afterlives in isolation, this conference builds on recent interest in studying the modern representation of the Renaissance period from an interdisciplinary perspective. The aims of the conference are twofold – to map patterns and connections between the afterlives of Renaissance figures from different walks of life by bringing together academics from various disciplines; and to understand the ways in which the cultural stories of Renaissance figures shape our editorial, interpretive, and creative practice.

We invite proposals for individual papers (max. 20 minutes) on the theme of twentieth and twenty-first century representations and reincarnations of early modern historical persons who lived between 1500 and 1700 – from monarchs to musicians, poets to politicians. Possible topics may relate to (but are certainly not limited to) the following areas:

• Early modern men and women in popular fiction, e.g. Rupert of the Rhine’s reinvention in the romance novel, or Leonardo Da Vinci as discussed in The Da Vinci Code;
• Renaissance lives in biographies, histories, and scholarly debate, such as Germaine Greer’s Shakespeare's Wife;
• Stage versions of early modern lives, e.g. the award-winning A Man for all Seasons and The School of Night;
• Screen representations of early modern personalities, for instance Elizabeth’s childhood in The Tudors or Vermeer in Girl with a Pearl Earring;
• Musical and nursery rhyme recollections of historical persons, such as singing John Smith in Walt Disney’s Pocahontas, or the real ‘Georgie Porgie’.

Keynote speakers: Professor Martin Butler (University of Leeds) and Professor William Sheils (University of York).

Proposals (max. 300 words) are welcome from both established scholars and postgraduates, and should be sent by Friday 20th January to the conference organisers Dr Varsha Panjwani and Dr Chloe Preedy at renaissance.reincarnations@gmail.com. We very much look forward to receiving your proposal.

The British Milton Seminar, Spring Meeting 2012

Saturday 17 March 2012

FINAL NOTICE

Venue: In the Birmingham and Midland Institute [**PLEASE NOTE**] on Saturday 17 March 2012. There will be two sessions, from 11.00 am to 12.30 pm and from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm

Programme:

(am) Matt Jordan (independent scholar), ‘Milton’s Apology: Credit and the Origins of Self-Esteem’; Thomas N. Corns (Bangor), ‘John Toland’s Milton’.

(pm) Colin Timms (Birmingham), ‘Comus at Exton in 1745/48’; Rachel Willie (Bangor), ‘Inscribing Textuality: Milton, Anti-theatricalism, and the Performance of Print’.

The Birmingham and Midland Institute (BMI) was founded by Act of Parliament in 1854, for ‘the Diffusion and Advancement of Science, Literature and Art amongst all Classes of Persons resident in Birmingham and the Midland Counties,’ and continues to pursue these aims. The BMI is located in the heart of Birmingham’s city centre, just a few minutes’ walk from Birmingham New Street, Snow Hill and Moor Street railway stations:

Birmingham and Midland Institute
Margaret Street
Birmingham
B3 3BS

Please follow this link for a map of the BMI’s location, and for further information about the BMI and its Library: http://www.bmi.org.uk/map.html

For further information about the British Milton Seminar, please contact either: Professor Thomas N. Corns (els009@bangor.ac.uk), or Dr Hugh Adlington (h.c.adlington@bham.ac.uk).