Genre, Affect and Authority in Early Modern Europe (1517-1688)
The University of Melbourne
11-12 July, 2013
Convenors: Justin Clemens and Anna Cordner, The University of Melbourne
Keynote Speakers: Professor Ian Donaldson and Professor James Simpson
This conference explores the struggle for political authority in early modern Europe through the creation and development of such influential media as public pamphleteering, anonymous libels and permanent popular playhouses. From the Protestant Revolution to the Glorious Revolution, the terms and technologies of political struggle are radically transformed, from late medieval disputes to recognisably modern debates. Recent scholarship has returned to the proliferation and cross-grafting of genres in early modern Europe, re-examining the very familiar (for example, Elizabethan-Jacobean tragedy and comedy), as well as the lesser-known (for example, the heroic drama of the Restoration stage). Such studies have shown how these genres emerge as partial responses to contemporaneous political, religious and media developments. Hence we see real political struggles for domination taken up as generic forces; for instance, in the anonymous libels of the period. We also see the five-act structure of new drama as not only a revivification of classical modes, but as tied to the efficient stage-management of permanent playhouses; for instance, as in the mnemotechnics and directions of Shakespeare plays. These new genres do not only emerge as symbolic responses to real political problems, but become forces of problem-creation in their own right. In doing so, they provoke, channel and modify affect, often even being directed towards the confection and control of certain emotions. The problem of authority — of symbolic authority, of authorization, of authorship — thereby receives a new and decisive impetus in early modern Europe. This conference will examine the relationships between genre, affect and authority in their historical context, as well as the continuing import that these early modern developments have for us today.
We welcome proposals for individual papers and themed panels on any aspect of genre, affect, and authority in early modern Europe. These could include papers on: the dynamics of printing and authority; the relationship of textual production to legislation governing forms of speech and language; the new science and its consequences for political authority; the changing status of genres of textual production and their relation to affect; the appropriation and refunctioning of religious discourses; the politics of the theatre; visual culture and the ‘image wars’ of royal authority.
Papers are to be 40 minutes in length with 15 minutes scheduled question-time.
Panels are to comprise 3 papers of 15 minutes each, with 10 minutes scheduled question-time.
Please send proposals of 200-250 words and a brief biography to Anna Cordner <cordnera@unimelb.edu.au> or Ruby Lowe <ruby.lowe@unimelb.edu.au> by Monday 10 December 2012.