Genre Trouble in Early Modern England (1500–1800)
Friday 11th March 2022, 9:00–17:00 (Online)
Queen Mary University of London and Sorbonne Université
Keynote: Dr Kathryn Murphy (University of Oxford)
Join us for a one-day online conference co-organised by Queen Mary University of London and Sorbonne Université (Voix Anglophones Littérature et Esthétique). If you would like to attend, please register here: https://tinyurl.com/genre-trouble.
Early modern writings frequently resist neat or easy generic categorisation. Subject to interpretation, pastiche and modification, generic categories offer flexible guidelines rather than a strict set of rules. This one-day conference aims to look at generic experimentation and innovation in early modern writing as a way to better understand the period’s multiple and evolving conceptions of genre.
With 5 panels and a keynote by Dr Kathryn Murphy (University of Oxford), we will cover early modern genre-consciousness , generic hybridity and the role of genre in life-writing, polemic and paratexts.
PROGRAMME:
All times are in GMT.
9:00-9:10 [GMT] Welcome Address
Each panel will be 50 minutes long. There will be 20 minutes for each paper presentation and 10 minutes for Q&A at the end of the panel. This will be followed be a longer time for discussion at the end of the day.
9.10-10:00 [GMT] PANEL 1: Life-Writing
Martin Thompson (University of Manchester) – ‘Un-editing’ the Autobiographical Fragments of Mary Ward (1585-1645): Taking the Texts on Their Own Terms
Emma Rayner (Australian National University) – Life-writing or Writing Lives? The Reception of Maternal Advice in Elizabeth Isham’s Spiritual Autobiography
10:10–11:00 [GMT] PANEL 2: Polemic
Laurent Curelly (Université de Haute Alsace) – "Must Invention labour into infinites?" British Civil War Mercuries or Generic Innovation
Genevieve Bourjeaurd (Simon Fraser University) – Reading Receipts: Generic Language in Early Modern Churchwardens’ Accounts
11:10–12:10 [GMT] KEYNOTE:
Kathryn Murphy (University of Oxford) – Word Salads: Montaigne and the Essay Against Genre
13:10–14:00 [GMT] PANEL 3: Reading Genre
Jessica C. Beckman (Dartmouth College) – "A marvelous hystory entitled Beware the Cat": Fiction, Compilation, and Early Modern Print
Ellen Roberts (Lancaster University) – The Horse, the Ass, and the Mule: Linguistic Analysis of the Context, Development, and Mixing of Early Modern English Dramatic Genres
14:10–15:00 [GMT] PANEL 4: Paratexts
Béatrice Rouchon (Sorbonne Université) – “A Blue Coat without a Badge": Generic Constraints in English Printed Paratexts (c.1580-1620)
Emily Smith (Université de Genève) – “His Comedie unto his Theatre": Conceptions of Genre in the Early Modern Dramatic Epilogue
15:10–16:00 [GMT] PANEL 5: Hybridity
Abigail Shinn (Goldsmiths) – Popular Pastoral: Genre Trouble in Spenser's Shepheardes Calender
Javiera Lorenzini Raty (King’s College London) – The Greekness of Hybrid Poems: Hermogenes of Tarsus’ Theory of Mixture and Late Elizabethan Epyllion
16:00–16:30 [GMT] Questions and Discussion
16:30-17:00 [GMT] Breakout Room Drinks
For any questions please email: genre.emp.conference@gmail.com