[Forwarded on behalf of Rachel Stenner]
**Notice of Conference -- Full CFP to Follow**
Please find below initial details of a conference to be held here at the
University of Bristol, in summer 2014, called "Dan Geffrey with the New
Poete: Reading and Rereading Chaucer and Spenser".
Best wishes, Rachel.
_____________
Rachel Stenner
PhD Candidate
Department of English
University of Bristol
[log in to unmask]
Dan Geffrey with the New Poete: Reading and Rereading Chaucer and Spenser
An international conference at the University of Bristol, Friday 11th to
Sunday 13th July 2014. Supported by the Department of English and the
Centre For Medieval Studies.
Confirmed Plenary Speaker: Prof. Judith Anderson, Indiana University,
Bloomington
**full cfp to follow**
There is a persistent discussion between scholars of the medieval and
early modern periods about how both periods are conceptualised and about
the interrelations between them. How can reading, or rereading, the
connections between these two poets contribute to this discussion?
Chaucer is customarily read as a poet of the High Middle Ages, whose
valorisation of the vernacular had a profound affect on the poetry of
subsequent centuries. Spenser is often read as a poet of the High
Renaissance for whom continuity with the past (literary and historical)
was a paramount issue. What are the connections between these poets and
how can they help to shape revisionist discussions about the periodisation
of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance? This conference aims to reread
the connections between Chaucer and Spenser, in the light of recent
critical methodologies and reformulations of historical continuity and
difference. The organisers hope to publish a selection of the resultant
papers as a single volume, so the following questions seek to elicit
contributions that collectively have a sense of coherence, without
constraining what contributors wish to discuss.
a. How has the relationship between Chaucer and Spenser been read and how
can it be re-read?
b. How do these two poets together help us periodise / deperiodise /
reperiodise the medieval and the early modern?
c. What kind of continuum do they share? Is their relationship
continuous, radically other, both or neither? Can we reconceptualise
descriptions of poetic similarity or difference through discussing Chaucer
and Spenser together?
d. Can we think of their connection in terms of anticipation as well as
influence?
e. What can we learn about the phenomenon of intertextuality by rereading
the connections between these two poets?
f. Does Spenser present us with one Chaucer or many? How has this
affected later versions of Chaucer?
g. Do these two poets take analogous approaches to the task of making
poetry?
h. How do earlier fifteenth- and sixteenth-century readings and
adaptations of the Chaucerian canon affect Spenser's readings of it?
i. How might a greater variety of critical approaches reveal new
connections between the poets? (e.g. ecocriticism, posthumanism, studies
of material cultures, studies of the digital humanities, cognitive
approaches, histories of the emotions)
j. How does Chaucer imagine his poetic followers? What would Chaucer
think of Spenser?
For further information please contact: [log in to unmask]
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