Modes of Spectatorship from the Middle Ages to 1700 Event

Keynote Speaker: Professor Greg Walker (Edinburgh)

Since John McGavin joined the University of Southampton in 1975, his research has ranged widely across medieval and early modern drama, performance, and theatricality in both Scotland and England. A long standing board-member and contributor to the Records of Early English Drama project, John’s work in the gathering and editing of primary sources relating to performances and their venues has been instrumental in building the foundations of future studies in the field.

2016 sees the publication of John’s latest book, co-written with Professor Greg Walker (Edinburgh), Imagining Spectatorship: From the Mysteries to the Shakespearean Stage (OUP). English and the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture at Southampton are taking this occasion to mark John’s retirement by celebrating areas of interest that he shares with early career scholars.

Everyone is welcome to attend the afternoon of papers, keynote, and round table, which will be followed by a reception to celebrate the publication of Imagining Spectatorship. Please let us know that you will be attending by e-mailing Stephen Watkins before 1 May 2016. For more information about the event and how to find us, please download the schedule and joining instructions document via the Useful Downloads link at the bottom of this page.

Programme

1.00 Imagining Spectatorship in Early Drama: Collaboration and its Complexities, Professor Greg Walker, University of Edinburgh

2.00 Civic Performance and Gendered Spectators

‘For his name Ludstone, he made men buyld’: Imagining Responses to King Lude at the Rose Theatre, January 18th 1594, Kim Gilchrist, University of Roehampton

Civic or Civil? Politics of Spectatorship in Early Modern Poland, Kat Kosior, University of Southampton

Upstaging Herod with Song and Silence: Gendered Gaze and Scopic Authority at Coventry and York, Dr Daisy Black, Swansea University

Spectatorship On and Off Stage: Representations of Gender and Power Dynamics in Restoration London, Gabriella Infante, Kings College London

3.40 Tea and Coffee

4.00 Visible, Invisible, and Fictitious Spectatorship

‘Seeing through a glass darkly’: Vision and Visual Limitation in the Wooing Group, Nancy Jiang, University of Oxford

Spectating Metre, Robert Stagg, University of Southampton

An Audience with Christopher Sly: Fictitious Spectatorship in the Shrew Plays, Robbie Hand, Kings College London

5.20 Response by Prof. John McGavin and Round Table discussion: Where do we go from here?

The round table discussion will be followed (approx. 6pm) by a reception to celebrate the publication of John McGavin and Greg Walker’s new book, Imagining Spectatorship: From the Mysteries to the Shakespearean Stage (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016)