ANZSA 2018 Panel CFP: “Lend thy serious hearing”: Irreverence and Play in Shakespeare Adaptations

Four hundred years after William Shakespeare’s death, his work continues to not only fill playhouses around the world, but be adapted for various forms of popular culture, including film, television, online video, and comics/graphic novels. These adaptations introduce a whole new generation of audiences to the work of Shakespeare, and are often fun, playful, engaging, and “irreverent, broadly allusive, and richly reimagined takes on their source material” (Cartelli and Rowe, New Wave Shakespeare on Screen, 2007, 1).

Proposals are invited for papers engaging with the various ways irreverence and play are used in Shakespearean adaptations in order to draw out existing humour in Shakespeare works and/or, and as a pedagogical aid used to help explain complex language, themes, and emotions found in Shakespeare’s works, and more generally make Shakespeare relatable, and entertaining for twenty-first century audiences.

This panel will convene at the 2018 Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association (ANZSA) Biennial Conference at The University of Melbourne, on the 8-10 February, 2018.

Topics could include, but are not limited to:

• Irreverence and play in media related to the “Shakespeare 400” celebrations in 2016: e.g. Shakespeare Live! “To Be, or Not to Be” skit; Horrible Histories: Sensational Shakespeare.
• Irreverence and play in “biographical” Shakespeare adaptations on stage and screen: e.g. Shakespeare in Love (1998); Bill (2015); Something Rotten! (2015); Upstart Crow (2016).
• Irreverence and play in Shakespearean adaptations for the theatre: e.g. Andy Griffith’s, Just Macbeth!; The Listies’, Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark; Reduced Shakespeare Company; Shit Faced Shakespeare; Something Rotten!
• Irreverence and play in Shakespeare adaptations in children’s and YA literature: e.g. Marcia Williams’ Mr William Shakespeare’s Plays; Andy Griffith’s Just Macbeth!; John Marsden’s Hamlet, A Novel; Kim Askew’s Twisted Lit series, Molly Booth’s Saving Hamlet; Ryan North’s To Be or Not To Be and Romeo And/Or Juliet.
• Irreverence and play Shakespeare adaptations in comics and graphic novels: e.g. Kill Shakespeare; Manga Shakespeare; Nicki Greenberg’s Hamlet; Ronald Wimberley’s Prince of Cats.
• Irreverence and play in Shakespeare adaptations on screen: e.g. A Midwinter’s Tale (1995); 10 Things I Hate About You (1999); Scotland, PA (2001); Hamlet 2 (2008); Were the World Mine (2008); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead (2009); Shakespeare Sassy Gay Friend! series (2010); Gnomeo and Juliet (2011); Messina High (2015); BBC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2016).

Please send a 200-word abstract and 50-word bios to Dr Marina Gerzic at: mgerzic@gmail.com by Monday 3 July, 2017 with the topic “ANZSA18 Panel”. I aim to submit a proposal for an edited collection from panel proceedings.

Pamphleteering Culture, 1558–1702
Edinburgh
30 September, 2017
Conference Website

This one-day conference, held jointly by the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews, will explore different approaches to early modern pamphleteering. Bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines, it will discuss the literary and historical aspects of pamphleteering. By uniting dedicated scholars of pamphleteering with researchers who use pamphlets as part of a wider project, the conference will create new understandings of the subject. We aim to examine both the construction of a culture of pamphleteering, and the ways in which pamphleteering shaped early modern cultures more broadly.

The conference will include a keynote address by Professor Joad Raymond (Queen Mary University of London).

The organisers are pleased to invite proposals from established scholars, early career researchers, and particularly PhD students for papers of 20 minutes in length. Papers may address pamphlets produced in the British Isles or elsewhere in Europe during any part of the period from 1558 to 1702. We welcome proposals from scholars approaching pamphlets and pamphleteering in relation to subjects including:

• Literary Criticism
• History of the Book
• Politics
• Religion
• Social History
• Cultural History
• Material Culture
• Visual Culture

We are especially interested in proposals regarding the relationship between pamphleteering and popular opinion, or that discuss pamphleteering in connection with other forms of media (e.g. printed, manuscript, or oral). We would also like to hear from scholars whose research challenges conventional narratives surrounding geography, gender, and race within the culture of pamphleteering.

Please send proposals of no more than 250 words, along with a 150-word biography, to pamphleteering2017@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is 30 June, 2017.