Daily Archives: 8 May 2017

On the Edge in Early Modern English Drama – Call For Papers

On the Edge in Early Modern English Drama

Edited by Mark Houlahan and Aidan Norrie

The editors invite proposals for chapters of c.7000 words for an edited collection, On the Edge in Early Modern English Drama. There can be little doubt that early modern English drama has received detailed attention in the existing scholarship. Scholars have long analysed the extant dramatic productions, and the men who authored them. Much of this attention, however, serves to perpetuate a static and heteronormative view of the past. More recently, scholars have engaged in excellent work to spread the scope of this attention, showing that people and concepts often seen as being on the edge of early modern English drama played integral and vital roles. These various roles help us better understand Shakespeare, Marlowe, Middleton, Jonson, and their ilk. The people and ideas that existed on the edge of English drama—both on the stage, and in non-traditional arenas—deserve to be brought into the centre, not to enshrine a new orthodoxy, but to acknowledge and extend the richer sense of playmaking and all its ancillary activities that has emerged over the last decade. This collection thus seeks to bring together the people, ideas, and practices that exist on the edge, and collectively demonstrate their importance and relevance—both to early modern audiences, and to readers and performers today.

Topics for chapters might include (but are not limited to): theatrical spaces outside the theatre; performances outside the London theatres; gender and performance; children, childhood, and child actors; staging ‘otherness’; publication and genre; texts, both extant and lost; civic entertainments; the edges of the canon; or the blurring of the edge.

As this collection is interested in the ‘edge’ of early modern English drama, we do not anticipate including essays on canonical plays and authors who do not in some way demonstrate their engagement with the ‘edge.’

Please send abstracts of c.250 words with a brief biography to both Mark Houlahan (maph@waikato.ac.nz) and Aidan Norrie (aidannorrie@gmail.com) by Friday, 4 August 2017. Accepted authors will be notified by 31 August 2017, and completed essays of a maximum of 8000 words (including notes) will be due by Wednesday, 28 February 2018.

2021 World Shakespeare Congress – Call For Hosting Proposals

As we look back on the great success of the World Shakespeare Congress in 2016 we also start to look forward to the next Congress in 2021. The first and, at this stage, by far the most important decision to be made is where WSC 2021 will be held. We therefore invite anyone interested in developing a proposal for hosting it to be in touch. Please pass this invitation on to anyone you think might wish to know about it.

On our website https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/education/research-scholars/isa you will find some PowerPoint slides, developed by Peter Holbrook, our immediate past President, about the process of hosting the WSC. I hope you will find them useful as you begin to consider what is involved in doing so. We will of course be happy to answer any questions, large and small, about it. Please contact Peter Holland at pholland@nd.edu and/or Nick Walton at isa@shakespeare.org.uk

All we would need at this stage is a brief expression of interest, to be followed in due course by a more substantial proposal. We would like to receive initial indications of interest no later than 1 July, 2017. Please send them to me at isa@shakespeare.org.uk. We will invite those selected to present a fuller proposal to send that by 1 September 2017 and we will provide further details of what that might contain in due course.

We know that we are always reliant on the labours of our hosts but we hope to make WSC 2021 also a source of pride and an achievement that memorably rewards the hard work. To WSC 2021!

Peter Holland,
Chair, ISA