-------- Original Message --------
Subject: CFP Kalamazoo '08
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 22:33:28 -0400
From: CoulsonGrigsby, Carolyn <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: PERFORM - Medieval Performing Arts
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Apologies for the cross posting -


Below, please find the Call for Papers for the four session topics
sponsored by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society at Kalamazoo
2008. These are also listed on the Medieval Congress' CFP. However, the
info below gives the specific organizers for the different sessions, so
you may send abstracts directly to the organizer or to me, and I'll
forward them on. If you have any questions, please let me know. The
general deadline for Kalamazoo abstracts is Sept. 15.



Thanks,



Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby

Secretary/Treasurer, Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society
Assistant Professor of Theatre and Humanities
Centenary College
400 Jefferson St.
Hackettstown, NJ 07840
908-852-1400 ext 2309
[log in to unmask]



Session One:  Drama in the Archives: A Session in Honor of Eckehard Simon

                 Eckehard Simon is one of the few scholars of medieval drama on the
Continent who has worked extensively with archival sources, and this
session is devoted to exploring further the ways in which we can find
drama in the archives of the Middle Ages.  However, as its paraphrase of
Natalie Zemon Davis's influential study Fiction in the Archives
suggests, papers falling under this rubric might also attempt dramatic
readings of these sources. The organizer would welcome creative
responses to such questions as:  How might we give voice to the
seemingly desiccated and silent texts that lie dormant in archives, and
make them live again as artifacts of performance?  What new sources
await our scrutiny as records of performance practice?  Are there
performative aspects to the very making of archives during the Middle
Ages?  Can we think about the manufacture, display, transmission, and
reception of documents as aspects of drama?

                Organizer:  Carol Symes, [log in to unmask]  Department of History,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Session Two: Medieval Theories of Theatre

                 Theatrical theory from the Middle Ages is often defined and
anthologized as clerical texts that reflect anti-theatrical prejudices.
In reality, texts from the medieval period articulate a broad range of
opinions about theatre's role in society. In addition, we can also
identify theatrical theory in medieval performance practices. Staging
choices, dramatic imagery, character interactions, performance
conditions, actor/audience relationships, and records of reception and
legislation all provide us with further evidence of the ways in which
medieval communities and individuals conceptualized theatre. These
practices reveal the same attention to issues of genre, function,
intention, value, and decorum commonly associated with pre- and
post-medieval theatrical theory. This panel seeks papers that employ a
flexible definition of "theatrical theory" in order to demonstrate the
variety of ways in which theatre and performance were theorized during
the Middle Ages. Work from all medieval periods and geographies are
welcome.

                 Send one-page abstract with contact information to Jill Stevenson at
[log in to unmask]  by September 5th, 2007



Session Three: Secular Plays Before the Secular Playhouse

                Scholarship on medieval drama often focuses on its religious forms,
primarily biblical vernacular plays, Latin liturgical drama, saints
plays, and overtly Christian morality plays. This session  provides a
forum for new scholarship on medieval and early Tudor drama which is
more secular or "secularized". Topics include, but are not limited to:
drama at the Inns of Court, secularized morality plays, early Tudor
comedy and tragedy, interludes and mummings, performance spaces, closet
drama, and the larger question of 'secular vs. religious'.  Papers on
drama from both the British Isles and the Continent are invited.

                Organizer: Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby, Centenary College,
[log in to unmask]



Session Four: The Representation of Healing Miracles and Exorcisms in
Early Drama

                This session will focus on theater craft and the actor's body, on how
healing miracles and exorcisms might have been realized in early drama,
relying on various sources from implied stage directions, prop
records,and images from the visual arts to the theological discussion of
miracle and the genre of saints' lives where this perennial form of
public spectacle and Christian witness was paramount.  It is hoped that
case studies from a variety of geographical areas and time periods will
be covered.

                Organizer:  Martin Walsh, University of Michigan, [log in to unmask]




Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby
Assistant Professor of Theatre and Humanities
Centenary College
400 Jefferson St.
Hackettstown, NJ 07840
908-852-1400 ext 2309
[log in to unmask]

--
Abigail Ann Young (Dr), Associate Editor/ Records of Early English Drama/
Victoria College/ 150 Charles Street W/ Toronto Ontario Canada
Phone (416) 585-4504/ FAX (416) 813-4093/ [log in to unmask]
List-owner of REED-L <http://www.reed.utoronto.ca/reed-l.html>
http://www.reed.utoronto.ca/ => REED's home page
http://www.reed.utoronto.ca/stage.html => our Web guide
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~young => my home page