Shakespeare and Political Thought
12-14 July, 2006
Sponsored by The Humanities Research Centre, ANU; NEER, University of Western Australia; and RIHSS, The University of Sydney
Conference Conveners: David Armitage, Harvard, Conal Condren, UNSW,
and
Andrew Fitzmaurice, University of Sydney.
Poster and Program and Abstracts and Report
Over the last generation the study of the history of political thought, especially that of early modern Europe, has been transforming. Yet, because of habits of mind and institutional barriers, relatively little attention has been paid to the Shakespearean corpus, how it might be a part of such histories and what problems there might be in understanding Shakespeare in new contexts of intellectual history. The enterprise is timely in as much as also over the last generation there has been a distinct historical turn in Shakespeare studies. Our aim is to bring together converging interests across disciplines and institutional structures by exploring the place that Shakespeare can have in the history of early modern political theory. Sponsorship will allow some financial support for post-graduate students working on relevant topics to attend the seminar.
The HRC conference constitutes the first stage in a longer term project; it will comprise a small range of invited speakers whose presentations will be drafts of potential chapters for the first collective volume on Shakespeare and the History of Political Thought.
As a second stage of this project The Center for the History of British Political Thought at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C. is sponsoring a two month seminar, May-July, 2007, on Shakespeare and Political Thought, led by Conal Condren.
Cambridge University Press has agreed to consider publication of a volume on the theme, to be jointly edited by the HRC seminar convenors.
The following papers comprise the Humanities Research Centre Seminar:
David Armitage (Harvard and HRC Visiting Fellow); Shakespeare's
Properties
David Colclough (Queen Mary, University of London); Turning
a Deaf Ear: Shakespeare on Freedom of Speech and the Problem of Counsel
Conal Condren (UNSW); Unfolding the Properties of Government:
Measure for Measure and the History of Political Thought
Cathy Curtis, (UNSW); The Active and Contemplative Lives
Andrew Fitzmaurice (Sydney); Shakespearean Corruption
Gordon McMullan (King's College London and HRC Visiting Fellow); The
Colonisation of Early Britain on the Jacobean Stage
Susan James (Birkbeck, University of London); Varieties
of Fear: Cowardice, Melancholy and Superstition
Eric Nelson (Harvard); Kings and Tribunes: The Politics
of Ideology in Shakespeare's Roman Plays
Markku Peltonen (Helsinki); Political Rhetoric and Citizenship
in Coriolanus
Aysha Pollnitz (Cambridge); The Education of Hamlet and
Prince Hal Jennifer Richards (Newcastle, U.K.); Speaking His Good: Mannerly
Speech in Henry VIII or All is True
Cathy Shrank (Aberdeen); Counsel, Succession and the Politics
of Shakespeare's Sonnets
Quentin Skinner (Cambridge, and HRC Visiting Fellow); Julius
Caesar and the Justifying of Tyrannicide
Phil Withington (Leeds); Putting the City into Shakespeare's
City Comedy