eighteenth century

Over_Seas: Melville, Whitman, and All the Intrepid Sailors

July 3-5, 2019

School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon

Herman Melville (1819-1891), sailor and writer, plowed the ocean as a tablet to be read, gazing at the white page where unfathomable characters surface to the eyes of the puzzled reader. “Captain” Walt Whitman (1819-1892), on the other hand, writing “in cabin’d ships at sea,” broke open and passed the divide between in- and out-of-doors, as he urged his book to “speed on.” Both were born 200 years ago.

This survey panel aims to establish dialogues between experts in early literatures. The confluence of epochs facilitates cross-historical discussion and provides a means for thinking about ways to teach early survey courses in university or college classrooms. This panel focuses on identities (racial, gendered, sexual, or mediatized, etc.). In recent years, scholars have labelled efforts to locate early forms of contemporary identity in early literature as presentist, an approach that tends to overlook differences between historical eras by prioritizing current concerns. However, are presentist methods actually flawed? And does any effort to trace earlier forms of current interests automatically constitute presentism?

World-Making, 1500-1800

University of California, Santa Barbara

Conference Date: February 22-23, 2019

Abstracts Due: December 7, 2018

The Early Modern Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites proposals for our annual conference, “World-Making, 1500-1800,” to be held on February 22 and 23, 2019. We are happy to announce our two keynote speakers: Su Fang Ng (Clifford A. Cutchins III Professor and Associate

Professor of English, Virginia Tech) and Daniel O’Quinn (Professor in the School of English and

Theatre Studies, University of Guelph).

This panel seeks proposals on theater and performance of the long eighteenth-century, especially those that address the theme of perspective. Essays might consider the way that perspective functioned thematically in plays and other public performances, such as opera, dance, and music, and the ways that perspective (e.g., perspective scenery) affected the material conditions of performance. What perspectives did eighteenth-century audiences have on theater and performance? How did these perspectives in the public discourse shape the drama and performances of the period, and how was eighteenth-century society shaped by these cultural institutions? Submit abstracts of 250-500 words to Ashley Bender at abender@twu.edu.

Call for Papers

Meeting of the 27th Annual

British Women Writers Conference

“Movement”

April 11-13, 2019

Auburn University

sites.google.com/view/bwwc2019