Since Thomas Hoccleve chose to set his “Compleinte,” the opening salvo of his five-poem Series, in the “broun sesoun of Mihelmesse” (an intentional inversion of Chaucer’s springtime “Aprill shoures”), critics of his poetry have been immersed in the depressive and disconsolate overtones of much of his verse. Hoccleve makes this easy—he dwells on his misspent youth and the infirmities of old age, bodily and financial.  Malcolm Richardson’s decades-old evaluation of Hoccleve as an “unfortunate poet,” a “slacker” and “failed bureaucrat” remains alive in much current scholarship which scours Hoccleve’s self-admitted defeats and disappointments for evidence of his commentary on fifteenth-century English politics and identity-politics.

EXTENDED DEADLINE: 10th August 2016

Dreaming Asleep, Dreaming Awake International Conference aims to spark new conversations about dreams and and their role(s) in cultural, social and personal contexts.

         Papers are invited on topics related, but not limited, to:

Our panel in 2017 will consider Elizabeth and her ruling strategies in relation to the material culture of early modern England. How did Elizabeth participate in production and consumption of material culture? How did material culture of early modern England reflect, shape, or ignore Elizabeth's taste, needs, and preferences? What household practices were modeled on those of the royal household? How did the city of London, the royal palaces, and places Elizabeth visited during her progresses accommodate the queen's needs? How were the material aspects of trade, gift-giving, cooking, writing, theater, etc. affected by Elizabeth's prominent position as a ruler?

CFP: Reconsidering The Second Nun’s Tale
International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 11-14, 2017) in Kalamazoo, MI