War and Peace in Early Modern Literature and Culture – Call For Papers

‘War and Peace in Early Modern Literature and Culture’
Queen’s University Belfast
26–28 November, 2015

War and Peace in Early Modern Literature and Culture is a three-day conference to be held on the 26th – 28th November 2015 in association with the School of English at Queen’s University Belfast, exploring ‘war and peace’ in early modern Europe across literary and historical perspectives. Our aim is to engage with contemporary literary texts, historical analysis and more recent representations and appropriations of the period’s numerous conflicts.

From the Spanish Armada to the Battle of the Boyne, this was a century dominated by war. But the period also witnessed the first ever European-wide peace agreement with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, while in earlier years figures such as James I strove to unite the continent’s warring fractions. This range of treaties and conflicts provided the period’s literature with some of its most controversial and radical subject matter. The interrelation of war and peace is fundamental to the work of writers as diverse as William Shakespeare, John Milton, Luis de Góngora, John Dryden and Joost van den Vondel. Yet, despite widespread critical interest in the representation of violence and power within early modern culture, the subject of war itself has received relatively little attention.

The aim of our conference is to explore these different elements of war and peace in early modern Europe from 1588-1690. Plenary speakers will include Dr. Jerome De Groot of Manchester University, Professor Andrew Hadfield of Sussex University and Dr. Yolanda Rodríguez Pérez of the University of Amsterdam. We invite early modern academics and PhD candidates of all levels to submit abstracts. Potential topics include but are not limited to:

  • The Thirty Years War
  • Conflict and Ireland in the seventeenth century
  • The Second Northern War
  • The legacy of the Armada and the ‘Black Legend’
  • Class struggle in the English Civil War
  • Militant Protestantism and early modern politics
  • James I as peacemaker
  • The staging and performance of war
  • News distribution through newspapers, pamphlets and newsplays
  • The writer as soldier from Philip Sidney to Lope de Vega
  • Early modern war as twentieth century propaganda
  • Censorship of literary works concerning war and peace
  • The justification of war in early modern literature
  • Reimaging early modern war on screen

The deadline for submission of abstracts (300 words maximum for twenty minute presentations) is 1st of June 2015. Submissions for panels are also invited. A small registration fee of £20 is requested, which covers lunch and refreshments for duration of the conference. Some funding for PG bursaries will be available. Please email submissions to: wandpconference@qub.ac.uk

Please direct any other queries to:
Sonja Kleij: skleij01@qub.ac.uk
Romano Mullin: rmullin02@qub.ac.uk
Matthew Williamson: mwilliamson11@qub.ac.uk