ANCIENT ROME AND EARLY MODERN ENGLAND: LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND POLITICS

Ez is egy érdekes konferenciának tűnik:

ANCIENT ROME AND EARLY MODERN ENGLAND: LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND POLITICS

Interdisciplinary conference, Jesus College Oxford, 21-22 May 2011. Speakers include David Norbrook and Blair Worden

CALL FOR PAPERS

Ancient Rome was a source of endless fascination to the early moderns.

Historians, politicians, divines, and imaginative writers looked to the

Roman example for models and inspiration. The aim of the conference is to

reassess the place of ancient Rome in the literary and political culture of

late Tudor and early Stuart England. In what ways did the translation and

reception of the Roman classics stimulate the native literary tradition or

influence its political outlook? What was the impact of the Roman precedent

on attitudes towards constitutional change, the rights and wrongs of empire,

and the law? How did it influence ecclesiastical policy and, more generally,

the views of the relationship between church and state? In what ways did

Roman historiography, political writings, and rhetoric shape the language

and substance of public argument? What was the trajectory of circulation in

manuscript and print of the Roman classics? What were the uses and topical

appeal of the Roman models in the wider public world and in education? How

did the Roman legacy compare with that of ancient Greece?

Our aim is to foster dialogue among literary scholars, classicists,

political and intellectual historians, historians of religion, specialists

in the history of the book, and historians of historiography. Bringing

together scholars representing diverse disciplines and approaches, the

conference will encourage reconsideration of much received wisdom about the

place of ancient Rome in early modern England's literature and political

imagination. It will, we hope, raise new questions about, inter alia, the

shaping influence of the Roman example upon formal properties and topical

undercurrents of imaginative literature, sermons, and polemical writings;

upon conceptions of public institutions and the individual's relationship to

them; upon views of foreign policy and international relations as also

military theory and practice; upon emergent confessional divisions and

incipient notions of religious toleration; and, finally, upon perceptions of

social relations in urban, above all metropolitan contexts. No less

important will be to assess the utility and pervasiveness of romanitas

before and after the union with Scotland, and compare the situation in

England with major European states, in particular, France, Spain, Italian

principalities, and the Netherlands.

We invite proposals for 30-minute papers. Please e-mail abstracts of no more

than 500 words to Felicity Heal (felicity.heal@jesus.ox.ac.uk) or Paulina

Kewes (paulina.kewes@jesus.ox.ac.uk) by 30 January 2011.

The Oxford gathering is a follow-up to the conference on 'Ancient Rome and

Early Modern England: History, Politics, and Political Thought' to be held

at the Huntington Library, 21-22 January 2011. For further information,

please contact Carolyn Powell (cpowell@huntington.org).