ASECS 2016: Sociability, Authority and the Curation of Literature in Eighteenth-Century Britain, 31 March-3 April 2016

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American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS)
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"Sociability, Authority and the Curation of Literature in Eighteenth-Century Britain"
Robby Koehler (NYU) AND Edmund G. C. King (The Open University, UK)

In the "Preface" to his 1725 Shakespeare edition, Alexander Pope excoriated previous editorial compilers who had been willing to print "unworthy" plays under Shakespeare's name. If those plays he judged "spurious" on stylistic grounds—which included Titus Andronicus and Pericles—were removed from the canon, Pope wrote, "how many low and vicious parts and passages might no longer reflect upon [Shakespeare's] great Genius, but appear unworthily charged upon him?" Comments like Pope's might seem shocking to a contemporary academic audience that assumes that attributing a text requires an authorizing historical or editorial precedent. However, the culture of eighteenth-century scholarly and literary editing operated on different principles, encompassing moral, ethical, and aesthetic elements as well purely empirical ones. What can we learn from examining the attribution practices of eighteenth-century writers and editors? This panel calls for papers that examine the presuppositions and practices of eighteenth-century literary attribution. What were the roles of scholarly sociability? How did scholarly coteries both produce and upend traditional interpretations of literary history and scholarly practice over the course of the century? How do eighteenth-century debates about the theory and practice of attribution impact on our own practices today? Papers on any aspect of the theory or practice of attribution in Great Britain in the long eighteenth century are welcome, as are papers from other literary and scholarly traditions.

If this interests you, please send an abstract of between 250 and 500 words to Robby Koehler (rdk252@nyu.edu) and Edmund King (Edmund.King@open.ac.uk) by 15 September 2015. Papers are expected to be 20 minutes long.