CALL FOR PAPERS

Rethinking Early Modern Print Culture

15-17 October 2010

An international and interdisciplinary conference at The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University in the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

The view that early modernity saw the transformation of European societies into cultures of print has been widely influential in literary, historical, philosophical, and bibliographical studies of   the period. The concept of print culture has provided scholars with a  powerful tool for analyzing and theorizing new (or seemingly new) regimens of knowledge and networks of information transmission as well as developments in the worlds of literature, theatre, music, and the visual arts. However, more recently the concept has been reexamined and destabilized, as critics have pointed out the continuing existence of cultures of manuscript, queried the privileging of technological advances over other cultural forces, and identified the presence of many of the supposed innovations of print in pre-print societies.

This multi-disciplinary conference aims to refine and redefine our understanding of early modern print cultures (from the fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century). We invite papers seeking to explore questions of production and reception that have always been at  the core of the historiography of print, developing a more refined sense of the complex roles played by various agents and institutions. But we especially encourage submissions that probe the boundaries of our subject, both chronologically and conceptually: did print culture have a clear beginning? How is the idea of a culture of print complicated by the continued importance of manuscript circulation (as a private and commercial phenomenon)? How did print reshape or reconfigure audiences? And what was the place of orality in a world supposedly dominated by print textuality? What new forms of chirography and spoken, live performances did print enable, if any?

Other possible topics might include:

* Ownership of texts and plagiarism; authorship; “piracy”

* Booksellers and printers, and their local, national, and international networks

* Readers and their material and interpretative practices

* Libraries, both personal and institutional

* Beyond the book: ephemeral forms of print and manuscript

* Text and illustration, print and visuality

* Typography, mise en page, binding, and technological advances in book-production

We invite proposals for conference papers of 20 minutes and encourage group-proposals for panels of three papers. Alternative formats such as workshops and roundtables will also be considered. Abstracts of 250 words can be submitted electronically on the conference website.

The deadline for submissions is 15 December 2009.

All questions ought to be addressed to the conference organizers, Grégoire Holtz (French, University of Toronto) and Holger Schott Syme (English, University of Toronto), at printconference@gmail.com.

‘Texts beyond Borders: Multilingualism and Textual Scholarship’
Academy for Science and the Arts (KVAB), Brussels, Belgium
November 19-21, 2009

CALL FOR PAPERS:
The European Society for Textual Scholarship
Sixth International Conference
Deadline for proposals: 31 May 2009

Contacts between languages, especially translations, have always played a crucial role in the making of European culture, from Antiquity until today. Bilingual or multilingual documents, literary works created in another language than their creators’ mother tongue, translations and translated texts are special textual objects which require appropriate editorial treatment. The conference will explore how textual scholarship responds to multilingualism in its various forms, such as:

1) Scholarly editing and annotating: Using translations as witnesses to an “original” text
How do we edit ancient or medieval texts (or parts of texts) that are preserved only in ranslations? How can we handle those cases where translations do not appear to be based on direct witnesses to the text?...
2) Scholarly editing and annotating: Translations as literary objects
Is the original text the only source used by a translator? How did he use earlier translations? How can we trace the sources and tools used by a translator? ...
3) Book history, the history of reading and translations
Dissemination of translations; bilingual editions; the role of Bible translations in the history of philology; translations which become more popular than the original; texts which circulate first or more widely in translation than in their original form (e.g. Flemish performances of Michel de Ghelderode’s theatre prior to the French original); annotations and marginalia in languages other than the reader’s native tongue: how do readers respond to works not written in their own language? …
4) Authorship and translations
Revisions of translations by the author himself may contain precious interpretative information. Translations may seem less authoritative than other texts and editors might therefore be tempted to emend translations on a larger scale than in the case of “original” texts. ...
5) Multilingualism and scholarly editing
Do multilingual works of literature need other methods of editing than monolingual writings? It might also be necessary to make a distinction between different types of multilingual works (self-translations, ‘hybrid’ writings, …). Do these different types require different editorial treatments? Is it necessary to find adequate methods to edit works by authors writing in languages not their own? Or works not written in any “natural” language, such as nonsense poetry? …

The programme chairs invite the submission of proposals for full panels or individual papers devoted to the discussion of current research into different aspects of textual work, preferably focusing on the topics mentioned above. A selection of papers will be published in Variants: The Journal of the European Society for Textual Scholarship. Proposals and abstracts (250 words) should be submitted electronically to:

Caroline Macé, University of Leuven:

Caroline.Mace@arts.kuleuven.be and
Dirk Van Hulle, University of Antwerp:

dirk.vanhulle@ua.ac.be
Deadline: 31 May 2009
All participants in the ESTS 2009 conference must be members of ESTS. For information, click here.

Poetry on the Plaza

Marathon reading of Shake-speares Sonnets

In a special Poetry on the Plaza event in honor of National Poetry Month, the Harry Ransom Center presents a marathon reading of Shake-speares Sonnets (1609) on Wednesday, April 22, at noon. Shake-speares Sonnets turns 400 this year, and to celebrate, Shakespeare scholars, poets, and others will read from Shakes-speares Sonnets and The Lovers Complaint. Birthday cake will be served at this free event to honor William Shakespeare's birthday on April 23.

VIEW A LIVE WEBCAST of this event starting at approximately noon on Wednesday, April 22.

For more information click here.

Language Incorporated: Culture Markets, Actors' Bodies, and Shakespeare's World of Words

McGill University Shakespeare and Performance Research Team

The LINC project's four-year research plan sees a foundation-building first year where the talents and expertise of all team members will be put to use in a tightly focused interdisciplinary experiment designed to test the two principal methodological innovations and to establish a critical mass of interpretive work on literature, theatre, and language. The work in year one will focus on The Merchant of Venice, and that play will remain a touchstone text in subsequent years, even as the work broadens out to consider a number of Shakespeare's other plays. The case-study and workshops of year one will be followed, in year two, by a focus on Shakespeare's language in relation to theatrical conditions and practices and in relation to actors' bodies, mostly but not exclusively in early modern England. Year three will see the team turn its sights from theatre to literature, manuscript and especially print culture, in order to detail Shakespeare's language's relationship to written work across a range of fields and also in order to develop a new account of the kinship between theatre and Shakespeare's literary accomplishments. Year four will pull the first three years of work together in relation to the question of the social power of Shakespeare's language in his own time and over the long term.

For more information, click here.

e-codices

Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland

The goal of e-codices is to provide access to the medieval manuscripts of Switzerland via a virtual library. On the e-codices site, complete digital reproductions of the manuscripts are linked with corresponding scholarly descriptions. Its aim is to serve not only manuscript researchers, but also interested members of the general public.

For more information, click here.

Music Books in Early Modern Europe: Materiality, Performance, and Social Expression

July 6-31, 2009; Newberry Library, Chicago

This NEH summer seminar for college and university teachers will explore music books produced in Europe between 1500 and 1700. The seminar will engage with the history of books and readers, and with the social and cultural history of performance. Recent scholarship on the history of the book emphasizes the book object as a space for cultural performance at all levels, from the "how-to" manual to a source for philosophical speculation. Like many book objects, music books are by their nature performative, not only as records of performances (real or imagined), but also as guides or prescriptions for behavior, and as indicators of wider cultural patterns and concerns.

The seminar will meet for four weeks, and will consist of discussion sessions, show-and-tell sessions of rare books, and weekly "cocktails and music making sessions." Under the guidence of the co-directors, participants will be expected to carry out individual research projects using The Newberry's collection of early modern music books and related texts. Participants will be assigned research carrels and and will have all the privilages of a scholar in residence.

Click here for more information.

Montaigne-Shakespeare: Biographical and Editorial Crossroads

February 29, 2009; Newberry Library, Chicago

This one-day conference will explore the relation between the biography of major authors (Shakespeare and Montaigne) and editorial questions. In what ways – if any – did the lives of Shakespeare and Montaigne determine or shape their editorial projects. How did personal experiences (educational, political, etc.) influence writing and publishing for these two major authors? Should modern scholars take into consideration biographical elements in editing these authors? Essentially, what are the crossroads between the life and works of Renaissance authors?

Participants: Philippe Desan (University of Chicago), Richard Strier (University of Chicago), Lars Engle (University of Tulsa), Peter Mack (Warwick UNiversity), George Hoffmann (University of Michigan), Jean Balsamo (Université de Reims).

Click here for more information.

The Role of Codicology in the Historical Critical Edition of Medieval Texts

January 9, 2009; Newberry Library, Chicago

Referring mainly to editions of works by the theologians Henry of Ghent and John Duns Scotus upon which he has worked, Prof. Emery will illustrate how the detailed physical analysis of manuscript books (material, composition, format, handwriting and change of scribes) as well as the history of individual books (time and place of origin, ownership, etc.) serve to confirm (or correct) the Stemma codicum establishing the relative authority of the manuscripts otherwise determined by textual analysis. Prof. Emery outlines the process of producing an historical critical edition from beginning to end.

For more information, click here.

Renaissance Journalism and the Birth of the Newspaper

September 25, 2008-January 31, 2009
Folger Shakespeare Library; Washington, DC

The first newspaper arrived in England from an Amsterdam publisher on December 2, 1620. Containing the latest foreign news, this publication immediately sparked a huge demand for up-to-the-minute reports on domestic and world events. From stories of war to lurid accounts of celebrity scandals among the royal families of Europe, journalism exploded into the world of Renaissance England. Gossip in the taverns and conversations among the political classes gave way to the phenomenon of a wide cross-section of the populace reading the events of the days and weeks in cheaply-printed serial publications.

The early English newspaper has left an indelible mark upon modern news culture. Even in its earliest manifestation, we see the emergence of the dramatic headline and the editorial, the development of tabloids and advertising, and the advent of attempts at state censorship and control over the presses. The content of the newspapers on exhibit reflects not only politics but the wider cultural, social and economic life of the times they covered.

This exhibition traces the development of journalism and the newspaper in England, from the manuscript antecedents of the coranto form to the introduction of newspapers in America in the late seventeenth century, and the birth of the first daily newspaper in England in 1702.

Click here for more information.