The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0025  Monday, 15 January 2007

From: 		Hardy M. Cook <
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Date: 		Monday, January 15, 2007
Subject: 18.0018 What's in a Name?
Comment: 	Re: SHK 18.0018 What's in a Name?

Last week, I solicited suggestions for a name for the upcoming new 
feature that I have been calling the SHAKSPER Roundtable, a designation 
that would distinguish it from the everyday discussions that take place 
on SHAKSPER.

I would like to thank everyone who sent me suggestions. They were 
thoughtful and provocative. Here are some of those I received:

"SHAKSPER High Table"
"The Globe"
"Roundtable Forum Number 1"
Internet-, Web-, Net- or Electronic Seminar
EMPAD, for Electronic Moderated Panel Discussion
The RETREAT, The SANCTUARY, or The WEEDED GARDEN
The PRIVY COUNCIL or The STAR CHAMBER
"Shakespeare Challenge"

If I were assign these responses to two groups, I would call one group 
the creative suggestions and the other the descriptive suggestions.

Roger Leeming <
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 > represents the creative 
suggestions:

*****
In Love's Labour's Lost, Act I, scene i, lines 13 - 14, the King of 
Navarre says,

'Our court shall be a little academe,
Still and contemplative in living art.'

The editor of The Arden Shakespeare version, H.R. Woudhuysen, notes that 
'academe/academy: a unique Shakespearean form. The Academy was 
originally the name of Plato's school in Athens. It was taken up in the 
mid-fifteenth century by the Medici, rulers of Florence, and imitated at 
other courts, esp. in France, where academies held formal discussions of 
matters relating to philosophy and to the arts.'

Since the following line in the quotation may be interpreted as meaning 
'calmly and consistently meditating on the living quality of art', I 
would respectfully propose 'SHAKSPER Academe' as the title for the 
SHAKSPER Forum/Roundtable since 'academe' is, as aforementioned, a 
uniquely Shakespearean term and since the word describes a distinctive 
'milieu' in which special and formal discussions take place.
*****

Larry Weiss <
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 > represents the descriptive group:

*****
Since the program will  be confined to a narrowly defined topic, and 
there will be a reading list which I presume all participants will be 
expected to follow, with the discussion moderated by a leader, this 
sounds like nothing so much as a "seminar."  Why not just call it that? 
  "Symposium" or even "colloquium" will also do, but are not are precise.
*****

Although I appreciate the more creative suggestions, I was looking for a 
designation that, even though prosaic, was more descriptive. Since 
traffic had been rather slow lately, I decided to put my three choices 
to an informal vote of the membership.

1. SHAKSPER Seminar
OED: "a select group of advanced students associated for special study 
and original research under the guidance of a professor."
American Heritage: "A small group of advanced students in a college or 
graduate school engaged in original research or intensive study under 
the guidance of a professor who meets regularly with them to discuss 
their reports and findings."

2. SHAKSPER Colloquium
OED: "A meeting or assembly for discussion; a conference, council. spec. 
an academic conference or seminar."
American Heritage: "An academic seminar on a broad field of study, 
usually led by a different lecturer at each meeting."

3. SHAKSPER Roundtable (The original title)
OED: "Used generally to denote a number of persons seated round a 
circular table, or imagined as forming a gathering of this kind; spec. 
an assembly of people for a conference or discussions at which all 
participants are accorded equal status Also transf., a collection of 
opinions or remarks on a particular subject.
American Heritage: "A conference or discussion involving several 
participants."

If you have a preference from among these three, please let me know, and 
in a few days I will let the list know my decision.

Hardy

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Hardy M. Cook, 
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