The Times They Are A-Changin’: Temporal Shifts in Early Modern Drama

deadline for submissions: 
September 30, 2022
full name / name of organization: 
Lisa Hopkins / Sheffield Hallam University
contact email: 

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. We welcome essays examining these and other facets of temporal shift across text, performance, and other modes of adaptation. Topics may also include the performance of early modern plays as part of celebratory events or seasonal festivals. Alternatively, contributors may choose to focus on how temporal shifts have affected the transmission, reception, or study of early modern drama. Papers taking this approach might explore, for instance, how a particular period or movement has responded to plays or writers in ways which are shaped by their specific historical circumstances.