Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Text, Performance, and Culture – Free Online Short Course

Shakespeare’s Hamlet: text, performance and culture online course starts this week courtesy of Futurelearn. It is planned and delivered by the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford and features many of their expert Shakespearians.

About the Course

Started on 13 January
Duration: 6 weeks, 4 hours per week

This course introduces the many ways in which Hamlet can be enjoyed and understood. Six weekly videos discuss the play’s fortunes in print, and its own representations of writing and theatre; its place in the Elizabethan theatrical repertory; its representation of melancholia and interiority; its fortunes on the modern stage; its appeal to actors; and its philosophy.

Course Requirements

A basic ability to read and understand Hamlet is a must for all students. Otherwise, a curiosity about this play and why it has remained such an important and iconic element in Western culture for four centuries is the sole prerequisite for the course.

Professor Richard Strier, University of Melbourne, Free Public Lecture

University of Melbourne, Free Public lecture
“Mind, Nature, Heterodoxy, and Iconoclasm in the Winter’s Tale“, Professor Richard Strier (University of Chicago)

Date: Friday 24 Jan 2014
Time: 2:30–3:30PM
Venue: Room 106, John Medley Building, University of Melbourne**

The argument of this presentation is that the mind’s independence from determination by reality is presented as the source of tragedy in The Winter’s Tale. Richard Striers argument is that the play treats this issue with philosophical precision but also with an overwhelming sense of pathology. The realm of “belief” is the focus. This realm is shown to be both a source of terrible danger and a source of potential redemption, and the play provides a mechanism for moving from one to the other. The relation of nature to the mind turns out to be the heart of the play’s religious as well as its philosophical dimension.

Richard Strier is the Frank L. Sulzberger Distinguished Service Professor emeritus from the English Department, Divinity School, and the College of the University of Chicago, is the author of The Unrepentant Renaissance from Petrarch to Shakespeare to Milton (2011) – which won the Robert Penn Warren-Cleanth Brooks Award for Literary Criticism – Resistant Structures: Particularity, Radicalism, and Renaissance Texts (1995); and Love Known: Theology and Experience in George Herbert’s Poetry (1983).

He has co-edited a number of interdisciplinary collections including, most recently, Shakespeare and the Law: A Conversation Among Disciplines and Professions (with Bradin Cormack and Martha Nussbaum); Writing and Political Engagement in Seventeenth-Century England (with Derek Hirst); Religion, Literature and Politics in Post-Reformation England, 1540-1688 (with Donna Hamilton); The Theatrical City: Culture, Theatre and Politics in London, 1576-1649 (with David L. Smith and David Bevington); and The Historical Renaissance: New Essays in Tudor and Stuart Literature and Culture (with Heather Dubrow). He has published essays on Shakespeare, Donne, Luther, Montaigne, and Milton, and on formalism and twentieth-century critical theory.

**Professor Richard Strier will also be delivering this lecture at the University of Sydney (4 Feb.)

SAIMS/TMJ Essay Prize – Call For Applications

The St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies (SAIMS) invites entries for its annual Essay Competition, submitted according to the following rules:

1. The competition is open to all medievalists who are graduate students or have completed a higher degree within the last three years. For PhD students the time period of three years begins from the date of the successful viva, but excludes any career break. Any candidate in doubt of their eligibility should contact the Director of SAIMS at saimsmail@st-andrews.ac.uk.
2. A candidate may make only one submission to the competition.
3. The submission must be the candidate’s own work, based on original research, and must not have been previously published or accepted for publication.
4. Submissions are welcomed on any topic that falls within the scope of medieval studies.
5. The submission should be in the English language.
6. The word limit is 8,000 words, including notes, bibliography, and any appendices.
7. The text should be double-spaced, and be accompanied by footnotes with short referencing and a full bibliography of works cited, following the guidelines on the TMJwebpage: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/saims/tmj.htm. An abstract of 200 words should preface the main text.
8. The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2014.
9. The essay must be submitted electronically to saimsmail@st-andrews.ac.uk, in both Word and pdf formats, to arrive by the deadline.
10. The submission must be accompanied by a completed cover sheet and signed declaration; the template for this is available at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/saims/tmj.htm.
The candidate’s name should not appear on the submission itself, nor be indicated in any form in the notes.
11. Decisions concerning the Competition lie with the Editors and Editorial Board of The Mediaeval Journal, who can, if they consider there to have been appropriate submissions, award an Essay Prize and in addition declare a proxime accessit. In the unlikely event that, in the judges’ opinion, the material submitted is not of a suitable standard, no prize will be awarded.
12. The value of the Prize is £500.
13. A candidate whose entry is declared proxime accessit will be awarded £100.
14. In addition to the Prize, the winning submission will be published within twelve months in The Mediaeval Journal, subject to the usual editorial procedures of the journal.

Any queries concerning these rules maybe directed to the Director of SAIMS who can be contacted at:

Department of Mediaeval History,
71 South Street,
St Andrews, Fife KY16 9QW

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/saims
saimsmail@st-andrews.ac.uk

50th Anniversary of the New Fortune Theatre, University of Western Australia

50th Anniversary of the New Fortune Theatre, University of Western Australia

Date: Wednesday 29 January 2014
Time: 7:00pm
Venue: The New Fortune Theatre in the Arts Building at the University of Western Australia

Many hundreds of students, academics and lovers of theatre have fond memories of either performing or watching a variety of plays and events in the New Fortune Theatre over the past 50 years. Come along and celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the only replica Elizabethan theatre in the southern hemisphere, hear about the construction and opening night and enjoy performances by the Graduate Dramatic Society including a scene from the first performed play on the stage, Shakespeare’s Hamlet (on opening night in 1964 messages were received from Sir John Gielgud, Sir Lawrence Olivier and many esteemed actors.)

This is a free event but because of limited seating, please RSVP to Jenny Pynes by Wednesday 22 January. Tickets will be allocated by first responses until run out!

2015 Issue of Horti Hesperidum: Living Images – Call For Papers

2015 Issue of Horti Hesperidum: Living Images

The biannual journal Horti Hesperidum intends to devote the first issue of 2015 to ‘Living Images’. Literary texts can serve as a source for documenting an anthropological phenomenon during Classical Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Modern Age: images perceived as living beings, capable of talking, acting and interacting with us. Special attention will be paid to the following topics:

  1. The relationship between believers and devotional images
  2. Ekphrastic descriptions of living, talking, ‘real’ images
  3. Iconoclasm, i.e. the desire to ‘kill’ images in each historical age.

The titles of proposed contributions, together with an abstract of not more than 2500 characters (including spaces) and a CV, should be e-mailed to the journal’s editors by 28th February 2014 (horti-hesperidum@libero.it).

Whenever an abstract is accepted, the editorial board will consider the complete paper by 31 July 2014. This should not exceed 65,000 characters, including spaces, and may be accompanied by up to 10 images at a resolution of 300 dpi. If protected by copyright, permission to reproduce images should already have been obtained.

Beyond Authorship – Call For Papers

Beyond Authorship
University of Newcastle, Australia
24-27 June, 2014

This symposium seeks to move beyond authorship as the primary focus of corpus-based studies in early modern literature, to consider broader questions of language and style, genre and form, influence and adaptation; to interrogate the new literary histories enabled by electronic text corpora, and the new methods of analysis they make possible.

Confirmed speakers include: Douglas Bruster, Gabriel Egan, Jonathan Hope, MacDonald P. Jackson, Lynne Magnusson, and Michael Witmore.

The convenors, Hugh Craig and Brett D. Hirsch, invite proposals for long and short papers (20/40 min) and quick-fire poster presentations (5 min). For consideration, abstracts should be received by email to hugh.craig@newcastle.edu.au and brett.hirsch@uwa.edu.au before 1 February 2014.

To download a poster/flyer and for more details, visit: http://notwithoutmustard.net/beyond-authorship

London International Palaeography Summer School/London Rare Books School 2014

The London International Palaeography Summer School 2014
Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London
16-20 June, 2014

The London International Palaeography Summer School is a series of intensive courses in Palaeography and Manuscript Studies. Courses range from a half to two days duration and are given by experts in their respective fields from a wide range of institutions. Subject areas include Latin palaeography, English, German and Greek palaeography, history of scripts, illuminated manuscripts, codicology, vernacular editing and liturgical and devotional manuscripts.

The Summer School is hosted by the Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies with the co-operation of the British Library, the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House Library, the Warburg Institute, University College, King’s College London and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

For full details please consult the website: http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/london-palaeography-summer-school

Closing date for registration: 6 June 2014 

The London Rare Books School (LRBS) 2014
Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Week one: 23-27 June, Week two: 30 June-4 July

The London Rare Books School (LRBS) is a series of five-day, intensive courses on a variety of book-related subjects to be taught in and around Senate House, which is the centre of the University of London’s federal system.

Our courses are taught by internationally renowned scholars using the unrivalled library and museum resources of London, including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Senate House Libraries, and many more.

Our courses are taught intensively in small groups of no more than 12 students in order to ensure that everyone has plenty of opportunity to talk to the teachers and to get very close to the books. Each course consists of thirteen seminars amounting in all to twenty hours of teaching time spread between Monday lunchtime and Friday afternoon. All courses stress the materiality of the book so you can expect to have close encounters with remarkable books and other artefacts from some of the world’s greatest collections.

For full details please consult the website: http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/london-rare-books-school

Closing date for registration: 6 June 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.

“Piers Plowman and the Body” : Special Volume of the Yearbook of Langland Studies, Volume 29 (2015) – Call For Papers

The editors of  YLS are pleased to announce a special volume on “Piers Plowman and the Body”. Any essay related to this topic will be considered for publication.

Suggested topics include: bodily suffering and disease, physiology, humors, senses, and medicine; disability; gender and sexuality; celestial beings, animals, and other living organisms; law, penance, and the regulation of the body; ritual, gesture, song, and speech; personification allegory; genre, form, and the “body” of the text; materials and manuscripts; the body and literary tradition (i.e., the alliterative “corpus”).

Submissions to the special volume are due by August 1, 2014.

Authors should submit manuscripts electronically, in Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, or .rtf, to yls.submissions@gmail.com. Where electronic submission is impracticable for authors, we gladly accept hard copy; in this case please send two copies to: Emily Steiner, English Department, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. As per Brepols policy, articles should conform to the Modern Humanities Research Association style guide, available as a .pdf download here. Authors should also adhere to the journal-specific guidelines available in this document. Submissions should be prepared for double-blind peer-review, with all information in notes and headers that may identify the author removed.

Accepted essays must in their final form be accompanied by a brief (60-150 word) abstract, to be published with the essay; a longer (250-400 word) abstract, for publication in the following volume’s bibliography and in the online bibliography on this website; and ten keywords, also to be published with the essay. From 2013 essays should also include a list of works cited at the end.