Early Modern Circle 2008

Papers for 2008

17 March

Nationalism and National Identities
Discussion led by Peter Sherlock

Recommended reading for this session:
Richard Bosworth, Nationalism (Longman, 2007), ch. 2 'Nationalism before nations, nations before nationalism'
Patrick Geary, The Myth of Nations (Princeton UP, 2002)

21 April

Julie Robarts
Dante Alighieri and Arcangela Tarabotti in Hell: An Intertextual Journey

19 May

Grantley McDonald
Doubt, Irony and Authority: Sebastian Franck's use of Hermes Trismegistus, Cyril of Alexandria, Cornelius Agrippa and Erasmus

16 June

Jenny Smith
Metametaphor: Fools, Mirrors and Lunacy in the Early Sixteenth Century

18 August

Beyond the Text: Sounds and Images as Historical Sources
Discussion led by Dolly Mackinnon and Jenny Spinks

We hope that people will have a look at these two short pieces of reading in preparation for the discussion:

Alain Corbin, 'The Auditory Markers of the Village' in Michael Bull and Les Back (eds), The Auditory Cultural Reader (Oxford: Berg, 2003), pp. 117-123.

Theodore K. Rabb, 'The Historian and Art: A New Maturity.' [Review of Peter Burke, Eyewitnessing: The Use of Images as Historical Evidence, 2001.] Journal of Interdisciplinary History 33.1 (2002): 87-93.

Photocopies of both readings will be pinned to the door of Charles Zika's office, John Medley East, room 544. You can also access the Rabb review of Burke's book electronically via Supersearch.

15 September

Matthew Champion
Nicolaus Jaquerius and the Heretical Fascinarii

In 1458, the Dominican Inquisitor Nicolaus Jaquerius wrote the Flagellum Haereticorum Fascinariorum, a tract designed to combat the rise of a new sect of heretical demon worshipers and enchanters. The paper will provide an introduction to Jaquerius and the Flagellum, particularly the key contention of the work that demons can interact in reality with the exterior senses of humans.

20 October

Charlotte Smith
The Terrible Turk: Images of the Ottomans Following the Siege of Vienna

Julie Davies
Poisonous Vapours: Joseph Glanvill and the Witchcraft Debate in Late Seventeenth-century England

17 November

Dianne Hall
Rape in Early Modern Ireland