'Training the Early Modern Heart'
Call For Papers
To mark the occasion of Elizabeth Hanson and Marta Straznicky’s retirements, the English Department at Queen’s University, in conjunction with the Sister Sophie Foundation, invites proposals for the conference ‘Training the Early Modern Heart’ on 29-31 July 2025 in Kingston, Ontario. The conference examines constructions of the “heart” and the methods and locations of its “training” in sixteenth and seventeenth-century English literature and culture.
The heart, in early modern England, had an expansive range of associations. It was understood to be a seat of conscience, law, judgement, knowledge, memory, selfhood, and spiritual and temporal feeling; it was closely tied to somatic experience and physical arts like acting, dancing, singing, fencing, and speaking; and it was figured as a philosophical problem that emerged in legal, religious, and affective contexts. ‘Training the Early Modern Heart’ considers the extensive and varied training of early modern hearts and asks where, how, and why hearts (and/or their correlating associations) were trained (and/or educated, practised, debated, or performed). Proposals are invited to focus on a combination of the subjects above, as well as some of the following questions:
-What did a trained heart look, act, sound, read like?
-What are some of the ways that early modern culture, drama, and literature speak to locations of training including and beyond traditional (grammar school, universities, inns of court) contexts?
-How is an historical and critical understanding of the heart relevant to modern education and culture?
Plenaries by Jennifer Richards FBA, Paul Stevens FRSC, and Mark Vessey move the focus across the long early modern period to examine the trained heart in contexts of drama, chattel slavery, and Erasmian humanism. Confirmed panel leaders include Patricia Badir, Lynne Magnussen, and Scott Trudell. The conference is further animated by workshops, open to all participants, on early modern acting, dancing, and fencing delivered by Benjamin Blyth (Malachite Theatre), Emily Winerock and Nona Monahin (Shakespeare and Dance Project), and Devon Boorman (Academie Duello, Vancouver). There are two public events: a lecture-recital of early modern lute songs and a talk by Eric Rasmussen on the Shakespeare First Folio and its function as the heart, or centre of truth and authenticity, in Shakespeare’s canon. The conference closes with a reception, dinner, and dance.
We warmly invite proposals (200 words) for 20-minute papers that explore the ways that early modern hearts received training from different disciplines, systems of education, and social authorities in the seminary, school, playhouse, court, port, etc. Three paper slots will be reserved for PhD candidates. Please send proposals and inquiries to Jade Standing at jade.s@queensu.ca. The deadline for submission is February 15, 2025.
