CANADIAN SOCIETY FOR RENAISSANCE STUDIES

CALL FOR PAPERS

CONGRESS 2016

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY / L’UNIVERSITÉ DE CALGARY

28, 29 and 30 MAY

The 2016 conference of the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies will be hosted by The University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta. The CSRS invites members to submit proposals on any Renaissance topic in a variety of disciplines: literature, history, philosophy, music, art history, medicine, cultural studies. Proposals will fall into one of the three following categories:

• individual proposals on a free topic;
• panel of three proposals (to be submitted in one file including the name of the organizer as well as the names of the three participants, the three proposals, and the prospective order of passage);
• participation in a thematic session (please see the list below).

The deadline for submitting a proposal or panel is 1st January 2016.

 For thematic session proposals, please check the list below for details.

Thematic Sessions:

1 — Topic: Early Modern Privacy

Organizer: Ronald Huebert (Dalhousie University)

When early modern writers and thinkers drew the distinction between public and private, what exactly did they mean? Why were the Blackfriars theatre and the Cockpit in Drury Lane referred to as private theatres, for example? Was privacy more likely to be available to aristocrats than to members of the middle class? Did religious affiliations influence either the availability or the value assigned to privacy? Contributions in English or French on any of these topics, or on other questions related to the issue of privacy, will be most welcome.

Please send your completed paper (capable of presentation in 20 minutes) or proposal (of not more than 500 words) as an attachment to: rhuebert@dal.ca

Deadline: 15 December 2015

2 — Early Modern Women’s Political Identity

Seeking papers that address early modern women’s sense of political identity. In Sociable Letters (1664), Margaret Cavendish proposes that if women “be not Citizens in the Commonwealth, I know no reason we should be Subjects to the Commonwealth.” This panel addresses the question of the conditions of early modern women’s political allegiance. Under what conditions did early modern women self-identify as political subjects of a nation? How does the allegiance to family and kinship networks intersect with the political for early modern women? To what extent do transnational interests conflict with (or intersect or override) national or familial determinants of identity and allegiance? We are interested in papers that address early modern women’s political identity from a range of perspectives and representations, including, but not limited to art, literature, autobiographical writings, and historical records pertaining to the early modern period (1500 to 1700). This panel is being proposed for the annual conference of the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies / Société Canadienne d’études de la Renaissance to be held in Calgary, Alberta, May 28, 29, and 30, 2016. Please submit proposals (about 150-200 words in length) together with a brief bio to both organizers: Margaret Reeves at margaret.reeves@ubc.ca and Joanne Wright at jwright@unb.ca by December 15, 2015.

3 — Humanism and Humanities: (pre) digital models for networks and communities

The vagueness and omnipresence of the term “humanism” seem to be matched only by the evocative performative power of the word. Indeed, the generality allows us to use the word, always in reference to its previous meanings, in order to describe the “Renaissance” of knowledge and the “renewal” of scholarly communities. Is this persistence of the word a reuse or a renewal of humanist models? From the Ciceronian humanitas, to the Digital Humanities, through the Italian Renaissance, Erasmus’ Europe and the Republic of Letters, the word has denoted not only a cultural heritage (Greek culture, ancient / classical culture, classics, ancient languages, Belles Lettres, literature etc.) but also an ethos of intellectual collaboration and conversation. Do digital networks reanimate these goals of the humanistic Renaissance? Do humanists’ contents define modes of collaboration for our research? Which future, which communities are being built with these concepts and with networks such as ITER? Are the humanities essentially humanist? Taking stock of the studies published at the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the journal Renaissance and Reformation, and celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies, we invite papers and thematic panels (of three papers) on:

• The representations of Humanism,
• Humanist networks, past and present,
• Digital and pre-digital Humanities etc.

We encourage students’ submissions and, to the extent possible, ITER will support them financially.

Thank you for sending your proposals (250 words max.) and a short bio (half a page) to Hélène Cazes hcazes@uvic.ca by December 15, 2015.

4 — Finding Fletcher

This panel invites proposals for papers exploring the dramatic work of John Fletcher. Essays might consider such topics as: the nature of Fletcher’s collaborations with Beaumont, Shakespeare, and other dramatists; Fletcher’s role in the emergence of tragicomedy; his position as Shakespeare’s successor as playwright for the King’s Men; Fletcher’s distinct dramatic style; particularly Fletcherian themes or concerns; Fletcher’s appropriations of, or dramatic responses to plays of his contemporaries; and the influence of Fletcher’s plays on the drama of his contemporaries and/or on the drama of the next several decades. Papers offering new interpretations of any of Fletcher’s plays are also welcome. Given the panel’s focus, discussion of the place of an author-based approach in relation to repertory-based approaches to early modern drama is also of interest. Please send abstracts of 150 words to Sarah Johnson, sarah.johnson@rmc.ca by December 15, 2015.

5 — Canon Fodder

Organizer: Deanna Smid (Brandon University)

Canons. Rounds. Catches: They were fun, often naughty, and markedly popular in Renaissance England. What might critical attention—from a literary, historical, and/or musicological approach—to canons and catches reveal about early modern English culture and society? For example: What do we know about particular canons? How do playwrights or other authors use canons in their texts? What might canons and catches tell us about gender, performance, voice, breath, taboos, etc? Or, what do we do with canons when they appear in places such as George Herbert’s “Sin’s Round”? Papers exploring any aspect of early modern English canons, rounds, or catches are welcome.

Please send your proposal (of 300 words) to Deanna Smid (smidd@brandonu.ca), by December 15, 2015.