Call for papers: Women, Image and Identity in the European Courts
This panel aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines
who work on women at all levels of court society. Women at court were
forced to confront conflicting expectations of appropriate female
behaviour and manifold demands upon their loyalty. They often relied on
informal and indirect means of achieving and maintaining influence and
while they might wield a great deal of power, they were also vulnerable
to attacks upon their reputation and changes in status and position
that were outside their control. Despite the frequent uncertainty of
their position, however, women of all ranks had a plurality of means at
their disposal to negotiate their own sphere of action and to create
and strengthen their position at court.
This call is for 20 minute
papers that discuss the methods and strategies women employed to
construct a place for themselves at court and to protect their image
and identity. We are interested in women who occupied a variety of
positions at court, from ladies-in-waiting to mistresses, from
household servants to queen mothers, female consorts and princesses.
Depending on response, we are hoping to put together one or more panels
for the Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference, to be held in
Montreal on 24-26 March 2011.
Possible topics for papers include:
Patronage – the commissioning of artistic/architectural/literary works.
Patronage – the construction and exploitation of
political/social/familial networks.
Material Culture – appearance: clothing, jewellery, style and adornment.
Material Culture – spaces and people: the clothing of household staff
and the furnishing of women’s quarters.
The Lifecycle – the marriage market at court, fecundity and sterility, the
transfer of status between princess, queen and dowager, and the effects
of changing status upon the household.
Female Networks: gifts/letter writing/travel/diplomacy.
Competition: rivalry, faction and alliance.
Reputation: fama, gossip, scandal, disgrace and the
construction/protection/destruction of the public persona.
Performance and Spectacle: theatre/dance/music/pageants.
Finance: dowries/expenditure/salaries/bribery/investment/control.
Please
email a 150 word abstract of your paper, contact information and
affiliation with the subject line ‘RSA Montreal’ by Saturday May 15,
2010 to the organisers:
Sarah Bercusson [log in to unmask]
and Una McIlvenna [log in to unmask]
|