In addressing the MMLA conference theme, “Post-Now,” the permanent section on “English Literature Before 1800” welcomes papers exploring any moments in pre-1800 literary scenes and contexts that relates our cultural moment.  Topics may include, but are by no means limited to, representation, identity categories (race, class, gender, age, sexuality, disability, etc.), technologies, political movements, audience responses, and any other critical issues from any period and genre. Reflections on pedagogy and classroom practices that address the “Post-Now” theme are welcome.  

Call for Journal Articles Now Open

Every year after our symposium, we invite authors to submit papers for consideration for publication. 

We are now inviting submissions for part two of the theme 'connections, interconnections, and disconnections'. To be published in Volume 3 of the Journal of Festival Culture Inquiry and Analysis by the end of 2024, 

Whether ancient or modern, we continue to examine festival culture around the world. Papers should explore how these connections, interconnections, and disconnections may shape and influence cultural practices, traditions, and norms.

Sir John Falstaff enters the Shakespearean stage asking what time of day it is and leaves it at the turning of the tide.  This collection of essays is interested in ideas about temporal shifts in early modern drama. Topics could include (but are not limited to) changing seasons; the representation of individual seasons in plays; holidays and ritual markers of time; the ebb and flow of tides; measurement of time and perceptions of temporal change; day, night, dawn and dusk; understandings of different time zones; the ageing process; saints’ days, quarter days, anniversaries, and other calendrical markers; accession days; and whether there was any awareness at the time of what we would now call the Little Ice Age.