Daily Archives: 6 January 2014

Continuations to Sidney’s Arcadia, 1607–1867 – Now Available and Special Offer

The following publication from Pickering & Chatto Publishers which may be of interest to some members.

Continuations to Sidney’s Arcadia, 1607–1867 is now available. Continuations to Sidney’s Arcadia is an all Australian-production; the general editor is Marea Mitchell (Macquarie University), and volume editors are Dianne Osland (University of Newcastle) and Ann Lange (Macquarie University).

Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia has held a significant place in literary imagination since its inception over 430 years ago. William Shakespeare and Samuel Richardson both took inspiration from it. Arcadia has a complex publishing history which has seem it extracted or rewritten many times.Sustained adaptations of the work are less common and can be limited to just six texts. Of these, only Weamys’s continuation of 1651 exists in a modern scholarly edition.

This project presents the remaining five as well as two short supplements that attempt to bridge the gap between Sidney’s original and revised versions of the work. All the texts are rare, with two versions being particularly obscure. Publication of these volumes allows for serious scholarly comparison as well as re-interpretation. An extensive general introduction analyses the history of Arcadia’s reception and the place of each version in that history. Consideration is given to authorship and editorship and how these were defined overtime. Each text is prefaced by its own introduction and includes a bibliography of key material relating to the edition. It will be of interest to scholars of seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature as well as those who study print culture and the history of the book.

Pickering & Chatto have generously offered ANZAMEMS members a code which can be use to get 25% off the RRP of Continuations to Sidney’s Arcadia.

Members should contact ANZAMEMS Communications Officer, Marina Gerzic for the code.

Many thanks to Eleanor Hooker at Pickering & Chatto for organising this for ANZAMEMS.

University of Melbourne: Summer School – Women: Between Faith and Reason

Women: Between Faith and Reason

Lecturer: Dr Petra Brown
Tuesdays 6-8pm, Jan 21 – Feb 18
Law Building, University of Melbourne

Full Details and enrolment at: http://mscp.org.au/courses/mscp-summer-school-2014

This course will examine the place of women, beginning with antiquity and the medieval period (with a special focus on women and mysticism), then ‘progressing’ through to Enlightenment and philosophy into modernity. In a great rollicking ride that engages with eleven women (representative historical figures) that challenge the status quo, we investigate a number of overcharging questions. What were the possibilities for emancipation within these historical epochs for women? To what extent were women able to participate in the life of ‘faith’? Did the Enlightenment and the increasing autonomy of philosophy lead women ‘out of the cave’ and broaden opportunities for women’s emancipation? To what extent were women able to participate in the life of ‘reason’?

This course presents an opportunity to look at women in the world of ideas. By looking at these historical figures among their better-known contemporaries, we are able to practice philosophy ‘at the margins’, as well as bringing women out of the shadows, into the light. The overarching questions that guide this course are intended to draw attention to the current place of, not just women, but what it means for anyone to live ‘between’ two worlds.

Throughout the course, we use both the primary texts of our trailblazer women, as well as various secondary readings from feminist scholars, historical biographers, and others.

Course Schedule

Week 1 – Introduction to course. Women: Between Faith and Reason – Antiquity.
Women in focus will be Judith and Aspasia of Miletus, representing the Judeo-Christian and Greek heritage respectively. Primary readings include The Book of Judith, excerpts from the Symposium, Life of Pericles, Acharnians, and the writings of Xenophon.

Week 2 – Women: Between Faith and Reason – Medieval period.
Women in focus will be Hildegard von Bingen and Christine de Pisan. A special focus of this week will be the link between women and mysticism, and women and literature. Primary readings include excerpts from Know the Ways of the Lord; Book of Life’s Merits; Book of Divine Works; The Book of the City of Ladies; and The Treasure of the City of Ladies.

Week 3 – Women: Between Faith and Reason – Early Modern.
The two women in focus will be Anna van Schurman and Christina, Queen of Sweden, with a special focus on women in the university, and women in political life. Primary readings include selections from Whether a Christian Woman Should Be Educated and Other Writings from Her Intellectual Circle; and The Works of Christina Queen Of Sweden.

Week 4 – Women: Between Faith and Reason – Enlightenment.
This week we look at three women during the age of Enlightenment: Friderika Baldinger; Olympe de Gouges; and Mary Wollstonecraft. A special focus will be on the possibilities for women’s intellectual emancipation during the German, French and British Enlightenments. Primary readings include Life Sketch of Friderika Baldinger; Declaration of the Rights of Women; Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen; and Social Contract.

Week 5 – Women: Between Faith and Reason – Modernity.
As we conclude our course, we look at two women from the 20th century: an age rich in women’s suffrage and the development of women’s consciousness. We look at two French women, contemporaries who both attended the Ecole Normale Superieure, but who are two very different thinkers: Simone de Beauvoir and Simone Weil. Primary readings include excerpts from She came to Stay; The Ethics of Ambiguity; The Second Sex; Gravity and Grace; Waiting on God; and The Need for Roots.

Readings: Specific readings, both primary and secondary, will be listed and, as far as possible, made available online.