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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 24.0239 Monday, 13 May 2013
From: Michele Marrapodi <
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Date: May 13, 2013 8:41:27 AM EDT
Subject: Anglo-Italian Renaissance Studies
Dear SHAKSPEReans,
I am pleased to announce the publication of the following new books in the Ashgate series “Anglo-Italian Renaissance Studies”:
Shakespeare Among the Courtesans
Prostitution, Literature, and Drama, 1500-1650
Duncan Salkeld, University of Chichester, UK
“Courtesans – women who achieve wealth, status, or power through sexual transgression – have played both a central and contradictory role in literature: they have been admired, celebrated, feared, and vilified. This study of the courtesan in Renaissance English drama focuses not only on the moral ambivalence of these women, but with special attention to Anglo-Italian relations, illuminates little known aspects of their lives. It traces the courtesan from a wry comedic character in the plays of Terence and Plautus to its literary exhaustion in the seventeenth-century dramatic works of Dekker, Marston, Webster, Middleton, Shirley and Brome. The author focuses especially on the presentation of the courtesan in the sixteenth century - dramas by Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Lyly view the courtesan as a symbol of social disease and decay, transforming classical conventions into English prejudices.
Renaissance Anglo-Italian cultural and sexual relations are also investigated through comparisons of travel narratives, original source materials, and analysis of Aretino's representations of celebrated Italian courtesans. Amid these fascinating tales of aspiration, desire and despair lingers the intriguing question of who was the 'dark lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets.”
Machiavellian Encounters in Tudor and Stuart England
Literary and Political Influences from the Reformation to the Restoration
Edited by Alessandro Arienzo, the University of Naples, ‘Federico II’, Italy and Alessandra Petrina, the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy
“Taking into consideration the political and literary issues hanging upon the circulation of Machiavelli’s works in England, this volume highlights how topics and ideas stemming from Machiavelli’s books-including but not limited to the Prince- strongly influenced the contemporary political debate.
The first section discusses early reactions to Machiavelli’s works, focusing on authors such as Reginald Pole and William Thomas, depicting their complex interaction with Machiavelli. In section two, different features of Machiavelli’s reading in Tudor literary and political culture are discussed, moving well beyond the traditional image of the tyrant or of the evil Machiavel. Machiavelli’s historiography and republicanism and their influences on Tudor culture are discussed with reference to topical authors such as Walter Raleigh, Alberico Gentili, Philip Sidney; his role in contemporary dramatic writing, especially as concerns Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, is taken into consideration. The last section explores Machiavelli’s influence on English political culture in the seventeenth century, focusing on reason of state and political prudence, and discussing writers such as Henry Parker, Marchamont Nedham, James Harrington, Thomas Hobbes and Anthony Ascham.
Overall, contributors put Machiavelli’s image in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England into perspective, analyzing his role within courtly and prudential politics, and the importance of his ideological proposal in the tradition of republicanism and parliamentarianism.”
New book proposals and edited collections of essays are welcome.
For a complete list of published and forthcoming books in the series, see the Ashgate website:
http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=638&seriestitleID=370&calcTitle=1&forthcoming=1
Best wishes,
Michele Marrapodi
General Editor
University of Palermo, Italy
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