renaissance

Middleton’s Afterlives in the 21st Century (Session A: Scholarship & Performance):

What is the legacy of the Oxford Middleton (2007) and the Oxford Handbook of Middleton (2010)? How have these texts shaped critical engagement with and performances of Middleton’s works? And what futures might we imagine for Middleton criticism? This series of linked sessions welcomes papers that address any aspect of his prolific career. Topics might include:

·      Authorship and collaboration

·      Genres

·      Comedy and the grotesque

·      Performances

·      Affect

·      Editing

The nature of sovereignty and its related concerns were central for political theorists of the early modern period (Renaissance). These questions continued to circulate in succeeding centuries, and returned with particular significance in the late 20th and 21st centuries, especially among continental political philosophers. This seminar will engage with questions surrounding sovereignty in both early modern literary texts as they relate to debates about sovereignty in their own time and/or in the present.

Renaissance Society of America (RSA) 2019 - Toronto

Panel - Renaissance Vegetarianism

The study of early modern food has blossomed in recent years. As scholars have parsed the politics of changing dining practices, the role of recipes in intellectual history, and the growing perception of food ethics as inextricable from social identity, dietary beliefs and habits have begun to be seen as central to early modern studies. One of the most striking dietary trends that spread across Europe in this period, however, remains underexamined: the rise of vegetarianism.

Spenser's Ethics Where should we look in Spenser’s writing to reconstruct the poet’s ethics? Or a Spenserian ethic? Should we look to the legendary virtues that organize the books of The Faerie Queene? To the various forms that his fictions take? To the figures of speech through which he constructs (and reconstructs) ideas and conceptual categories? To the kinds of readers and readings his work has attracted and/or fashioned? This panel seeks papers that investigate the tension between the requirements we bring to the texts and authors we champion and the capacity for writing to shape our evaluations.

New Geographies in Political Thought: The Americas and Caribbean  (RSA, Toronto, 17-19 March)

Part of a series of panels designed to expand the range of “early modern political thought,” this call seeks proposals for papers concentrating on political/legal thought that engage the peoples, locations, and issues of North America, South America, and the Caribbean.