2013 – Call for Papers

Courtliness and Convention

THE 37TH ANNUAL

OHIO VALLEY SHAKESPEARE CONFERENCE

Cleveland, Ohio

Sheraton Cleveland, Airport

October 10-12, 2013

The planning committee of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference seeks proposals for papers or panels from across today’s theoretical and methodological landscape that engage Courtliness and Convention in the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. How do Shakespearean plays illustrate and critique early modern conceptions of conventional courtly behavior?  More broadly, how do the era’s plays and poems incorporate, problematize, and establish social convention – political, literary, educational, rhetorical, or otherwise? How do we understand the conventions of courtliness in today’s theaters and classrooms?

The OVSC invites papers that explore representation of Shakespearean Courtliness and Convention in the early modern context and in contemporary adaptations.

Possible topics might include:

  • Shakespearean Ritual
  • Royals and Peasants
  • Artfulness and Leisure
  • Courtly Love
  • Machiavels and Gladhanders
  • Masques
  • Satire
  • Staging Conventions
  • Fools and Clowns
  • Literary Customs
  • Gender and Power
  • Ceremony
  • Command Performances
  • Patronage
  • Honor and Violence
  • Chivalry and Reputation
  • Surveillance
  • The Domestic and the Political
  • Renaissance Education
  • Dumb Shows
  • Literary Homage and Originality
  • Courtly Hospitality

Plenary Speakers:

  • Richard Dutton, The Ohio State University
  • Sandra Logan, Michigan State University

Please submit 500-word abstracts for papers by September 1, 2013 to nunn@uakron.edu. We welcome roundtable discussion proposals as well. The OVSC publishes a volume of selected papers each year and conferees are welcome to submit revised versions of their papers for consideration. Students who present are eligible to compete for the M. Rick Smith Memorial Prize. More information is available at blogs.uakron.edu/ovsconf.