Theatre on the Move in Times of Conflict (1750-1850) - Call for Papers

Conference CFP: Theatre on the Move in Times of Conflict (1750-1850)

University of Oxford, Magdalen College, 18-19 September 2019

This conference seeks to explore the movement of theatre across linguistic, cultural, and national boundaries between 1750 and 1850, with a special focus on conflict as a driver of such movement. Bookended by the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) – seen by some scholars as the first truly global conflict – and the Crimean War (1853–1856), this century was one of continuous hostilities, from international struggles to colonial campaigns, revolutions to civil wars. These conflicts caused significant displacement of people, fuelling the movement of ideas, technologies, writers, artists, and performers. As a consequence, warfare was a recurring feature of contemporary life, whether an individual was on the move (either mobilised or displaced), had loved ones involved in campaigns, or read about such conflicts in the burgeoning newspaper press. All this radically transformed the public sphere and thus the perception of different cultures. Yet, despite burgeoning interest in cultural transfer, transnationalism, and circulation in the theatre scholars have been less keen to study the transformation caused by theatrical encounter that occurred during, and often because of, conflict and war.

This conference aims to address this lacuna by asking 1) how does conflict enable (or force) encounters and exchanges between theatrical cultures and 2) how do such encounters and exchanges affect theatrical milieus and their development? We are interested in encounters shaped by the circulation of materials (theatre texts, music, instruments, stage technology, criticism, etc.); people (migrant artists, armies and their bands, prisoners of war, etc.); ideas and knowledge; and the impact of these circulations on established theatrical milieus. We also question the centrality of ‘nation state’ in studies of theatrical dissemination of this period. Even though conflicts such as the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars are typically considered crucial to the establishment of European ‘nationalisms’, conceptions of the ‘nation’ were still being developed at this time and thus continuously in flux. Therefore, we propose to adopt a broader purview and grapple with issues of encounter between cultures as reflected through class, rank, faith, language, ethnicity, and location.

We understand theatre in a broad sense, from all elements involved in its production and circulation (such as people, material, technology, knowledge, criticism etc.) to the different layers of performance (text, music, image, dance, performance, staging). In terms of genre, this includes a wide variety from opera, melodrama, and vaudeville, to spoken tragedy and comedy and so on. Possible papers might address:

  • Networks, patterns, and the technologies of circulation (of theatrical works, of artists, or of audiences)
  • Theatre as a locus of identity formation, and identity formation as ‘in between’ cultures (cf. Homi Bhabha)
  • Representing ‘national traditions,’ nationalism, and national identities in times of war
  • The impact of exile and émigré communities on theatrical production
  • Productions by military personnel
  • The impact of military presence on theatrical production
  • Translations and adaptations of theatrical works
  • War, migration, and the understanding of theatrical cosmopolitanism
  • Issues of censorship and propaganda
  • Methodological issues in studying the impact of conflict on movement of theatre (for instance, Michael Werner and Bénédicte Zimmerman’s notion of ‘intercrossing’)

The programme committee welcomes proposals for individual papers (20 minutes). Please send an abstract (200-250 words) and a short biographical note (ca. 100 words) as Word documents along with your name, affiliation, and any audio, visual, or other needs for the presentation to Annelies Andries (University of Oxford, Magdalen College) and Clare Siviter (University of Bristol) at [email protected].

The deadline for submissions is 3 June 2019. Acceptance notifications will be sent mid-June 2019. For more information on the conference see theatreonthemove.wordpress.com.

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Room Update: C18th Literature and Culture Seminar

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Graduate Seminar in History, 1680-1850 Trinity Term 2019

Trinity Term 2019

The seminar will meet weekly, on Tuesdays at 4.15 p.m. in the Beckington Room, Lincoln College (ask at the college lodge for directions). Tea and coffee will be available from 4pm. Asterisked speakers are graduates in their first doctoral year, whose papers may be shorter than usual. All research students working in this period are encouraged to attend; anyone else interested is also very welcome.

30th April **Elisabeth Grass (St. Peter’s)
(1st week) “Land for parade and poverty”: John
Tharp of Jamaica as English landed
gentleman

7th May **Mary O’Connor (Somerville)
(2nd week) Debating society: talking politics in London
and Lancashire, 1806-1817

14th May Jon Stobart (Manchester Metropolitan)
(3rd week) “It is very unpleasant to lye in such Beds”:
getting comfortable in the Georgian bed
chamber

21st May **Eamonn O’Keeffe (Merton)
(4th week) The Musical Armed Nation: Mass
Mobilisation, Music and Politics during and
after the Napoleonic Wars

28th May Frances Nolan (Maynooth)
(5th week) “They seem to make us weary of
application”: “Jacobite” women and the
Williamite confiscation in Ireland
(joint-seminar with the Irish History group)

4th June Ben Gilding (Cambridge)
(6th week) East India Company Reform and the
Ideological Origins of British India,
1757-1784

11th June Undergraduate Thesis Talks
(7th week) Two current undergraduates will discuss
the experience and findings of their
recently-completed theses.

18th June Anna Geurts (Sheffield)
(8th week) As Long As It’s Clean: Travellers’ Disgust
in Nineteenth-Century Europe

For information about the seminar, and news of forthcoming events, visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oxford-seminar-in-mainly-British-History-1680-1850/123050627891042 We would be happy to post notices of interest to our group – contact [email protected]

S. Skinner (Balliol); O. Cox (TORCH); B. Harris (Worcester); P. Gauci (Lincoln)

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Romantic Research Seminar, Trinity Term 2019

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Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture Seminar, Trinity Term 2019

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IMPORTANT: CHANGE OF VENUE 19 February 2022 - 18th Century Literature and Culture Seminar

18th century Literature and Culture seminar

CHANGE OF VENUE

TUESDAY 19 FEBRUARY, 5.30 p.m.

SEMINAR ROOM EAST IN MANSFIELD COLLEGE, OXFORD

Dr Georgina Lock, ‘Lady in a Veil’, a performance based on the life and works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu followed by discussion. Dr Georgina Lock is Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University in Scriptwriting, an actor, director, screenwriter

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Graduate Seminar in History, 1680-1850 Hilary Term 2019

Hilary Term 2019

The seminar will meet weekly, on Tuesdays at 4.15pm, in the Beckington Room, Lincoln College (ask at the college lodge for directions). Tea and Coffee will be served from 4pm. All research students working in this period are encouraged to attend; anyone else interested is also very welcome.

15th Jan. (week 1) Gareth Atkins (Cambridge) Mapping Evangelical London, c. 1770-1820: Reflections on Writing about Religious Networks
22nd Jan. (week 2) Naomi Pullin (Warwick) Best Friends and Worst Enemies: Female Negative Sociability in Britain, 1660-1775
29th Jan. (week 3) Maura Valenti (Trinity) “…and quietly accommodate themselves to the misery of the times”: Toward a Study of the Music of Catholic Ireland under the Penal Laws
5th Feb. (week 4) Maxine Berg (Warwick) Nootka Sound on the Northwest Pacific Coast: a Global Micro Trading Centre 1778-1794
12th Feb. (week 5) David Kennerley (QMUL) Towards a Sonic History of Chartism: A Case-study of Music, Sound and Politics in Mid-Nineteenth-century Leicester
19th Feb. (week 6) Nuala Zahedieh (Edinburgh) Eric Williams and William Forbes: copper, colonies, capital accumulation and the Industrial Revolution
26th Feb. (week 7) Dexnell Peters (Exeter) Trinidad and Demerara: The Southern Caribbean in the Revolutionary Era
5th March (week 8) Sophie Chessum (National Trust) Clandon Park

For information about the seminar, and news of forthcoming events, visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oxford-seminar-in-mainly-British-History-1680-1850/123050627891042 We would be happy to post notices of interest to our group – contact [email protected]

B. Harris (Worcester); S. Skinner (Balliol); O. Cox (TORCH); P. Gauci (Lincoln)

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Romantic Research Seminar Hilary Term 2019

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Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture Seminar Hilary Term 2019

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Romantic Research Seminar MT2018

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