Exploring the Renaissance 2021: An International Conference, March 25-27
The Andrew Marvell Society invites proposals for 15- to 20-minute papers to be presented at the 2021 South Central Renaissance Conference (SCRC) on any aspect of Marvell studies. Proposals are welcomed on all topics.
We also invite proposals for short (5- to 10-minute) papers for a round-table discussion of Marvell’s “Mourning.” This poem has been described as an exercise in “withholding” (Stanley Fish) and as a successful act of resistance “to all temptation to simplify the enigma of experience” (Robert Wilcher). Are these critical assessments right? Is withholding a generally characteristic Marvellian gesture, or is it specific to the kind of mourning the poem depicts? How might the poem’s suspension or refusal of meaning allow us to bring Marvell into current debates about interpretation and critique in literary studies? We are open to all approaches to the poem, but we are especially interested in treatments of individual stanzas, so that presenters might offer a reading of their stanza and also bring to bear a passage from elsewhere (an intertext, a Marvellian echo, a theoretical lens). We are looking forward to discussing the directions that “Mourning” opens up for our thinking.
To propose either a full-length paper or a contribution to the round-table, submit an abstract (under 350 words) to https://southcentralrenaissanceconference.org/scrc-2021-submission-portal/, choosing “Andrew Marvell Society” from the Panel Groupings drop-down menu.
This year’s conference to be held remotely through Zoom. Papers that were included on the 2020 program will be automatically accepted for the 2021 conference, but you must resubmit your abstract to indicate that you intend to present this year. An SCRC membership (purchasable online) is required to attend.
Deadline: December 28, 2020
SCRC Contact: Mary Villeponteaux, [email protected]