Proposals are invited for a session on Fraud, Mockery, Jest, and Cony-Catching in the Early Modern Period, to be convened at RSA 2019 conference, Toronto, 17-19 March 2019.
To what extent is a jest also a lie? Are frauds funny? Taking a cue from “mockery” as mimic, sham, and spoof, this panel is interested in the ways fraud, imposture, and deceit function as ludic entertainment – whether intentionally or as byproduct.
This panel invites submissions that consider the jocularity of fraud, counterfeit, trickery, disguise, quackery, and cozenage. Papers are welcome to explore the theme in regards to:
- Material culture including trick objects like blow books, mock almanacs, or fraudulent copies of famous works
- Gendered experiences of deception or artifice
- Jestbooks, ludic ballads, mock pamphlets
- Mountebanks, street performers, gambling games, and pick-pockets
- Medicine, especially the preoccupation with quack physicians
- Natural philosophy and debates pushing back against charges of superstition
- Magic, either through a focus on prestidigitation or representations and discussions of witchcraft
- Satire
- Parody
- Religious debates including displays of anti-Catholic sentiment and fears as well as fetishizations of “Popery”
- Theatre, stagecraft, and/or anti-theatrical sentiment
Proposals should be for 20-minute papers, and should include:
- title for the paper
- abstract of 150 words
- 1-page CV
- current contact information
- A/V requirements
Submit proposals to agovjian@live.unc.edu by 10 August, 2018. Subject line: “RSA – Fraud and Mockery.”
