CONCEPTS OF CREATIVITY IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND Two-day
International Interdisciplinary Symposium School of Arts, Histories and
Cultures, University of Manchester

6-7 September 2008 

www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/subjectareas/music/research/musicalcreativity/
conference         

Creation: 'a making or forming of something, as it were, out of
nothing', Edward Phillips, A Nevv VVorld of VVords, Or a General English
Dictionary (London, 1678) 

CALL FOR PAPERS:
The early modern period witnessed the flowering of what, today, we would
call the creative arts in England, and in recent years the social and
cultural significance of such activities has come to be appreciated
increasingly by scholars across a broad range of disciplines. But what
exactly did it mean to form something, 'as it were, out of nothing' in
the seventeenth century? While our modern understanding of creativity is
firmly based around ideas of imagination and originality, it is far from
clear that such concepts were always relevant to the production of
visual art, music, plays, poetry and literature in the seventeenth
century; moreover, basic tenets that we tend to take for granted-such as
the primacy of the author-have been shown to be inappropriate in a
number of significant studies. The aim of this interdisciplinary
symposium is to explore ways in which we can seek to understand what it
meant to be creative in the early modern period. 

We welcome proposals for papers from an interdisciplinary field,
including cultural historians, art historians, dance historians, theatre
historians, musicologists and literary scholars. 

Suggested themes include the following: 
Ideas of authorship and intellectual property; 'Imitatio' and
originality; Literacy and the function of memory; Performance and text
in music and drama - issues of improvisation; Print and manuscript
cultures - the impact of printing on creativity; Contemporary
terminology for 'creative' activities - 'art' and 'science'; Evidence
for creative processes; Women and creativity; The professional and the
amateur 

The symposium forms part of a four-year research project, 'Musical
Creativity in Restoration England'. The project comprises the first
systematic investigation of professional musical creativity in
Restoration England; based on close study of the surviving primary
sources within the social and cultural contexts in which they were
produced, it seeks to situate composition within the broader framework
of 'creative activity' in seventeenth-century England. We are grateful
to the AHRC for its support in funding this symposium. Strongly
interdisciplinary in its approach, the School of Arts, Histories and
Cultures at the University of Manchester comprises a subject group
including Music, Art History and Visual Studies, Drama, English and
American Studies, History, and Religions and Theology. The School
focuses on exploring the material, visual, creative and performative
dimensions of culture with a particular interest in historically
contextualised cultural problems. 

Invited speakers: 
Prof. James Winn, Boston University (Keynote speaker) Prof. Andrew
Walkling, Binghamton University Prof. Amanda Eubanks Winkler, Syracuse
University

It is intended that selected papers will be published in revised form
after the conference as a collection of essays.

GUILDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS:
Proposals are invited for: 
 1. Individual papers of 20 minutes' duration (10 minutes to be allowed
for discussion after each paper). 
 2. Sessions involving three or four papers on a specified area
commensurate with the theme of the conference, given by different
individuals and lasting not more than one-and-a-half hours, including
discussion. 

 Any individual may submit one proposal. 

 Proposals must include the following information: 
 1. Name
 2. Institution
 3. Postal Address
 4. Telephone number
 5. Email address
 6. Abstract: not more than 250 words for individual papers; not more
than 500 words for group sessions. 

 Proposals should be sent via email to:
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AND ALSO POSTED OR FAXED to: 
Dr Rebecca Herissone
Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama University of Manchester
Coupland Street Manchester
M13 9PL
fax: +44 (0)161 275 4994 

Informal enquiries are also welcomed and can be sent by email to Dr
Herissone. 

ORGANISING COMMITTEE: 
Dr Rebecca Herissone, University of Manchester (Convenor) Dr Alan
Howard, University of Manchester Prof. Amanda Eubanks Winkler, Syracuse
University Prof. Andrew Walkling, Binghamton University 

Deadline: 31 January 2008