Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0655. Wednesday, 30 August 1995.
(1) From: Jack Lynch <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 29 Aug 1995 09:09:27 -0400 (EDT)
Subj: Conferences
(2) From: Christine R. Gray <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 29 Aug 1995 09:17:18 -0400 (EDT)
Subj: Re: Grad. Programs
(3) From: Bradley S. Berens <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 29 Aug 1995 10:46:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subj: Re: SHK 6.0652 Re: Grad. Programs
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jack Lynch <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 29 Aug 1995 09:09:27 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Conferences
TT: I am a PhD candidate in English at Northwestern
University, specializing in the Renaissance. I am just
becoming interested in delivering conference papers, and
could use some help finding all the good places to find calls
for conference papers.
At Penn, we maintain the closest thing to a standard list of calls for papers
on-line -- we collect every announcement that comes through E-mail we can find,
and add some that appear only on paper. If you can use the gopher, point it at
gopher.english.upenn.edu
and follow the entries for "Announcements" (2), then "Calls for Papers" (4),
then your period. If you have a Web browswer, point it at
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/research.html
which is my big list of literary resources; for each period, you'll find a link
to the appropriate Calls for Papers entry.
TT: Also, do most of the conferences in which Shakespeare is
prominent post messages to this listserv, or not?
Most of them do.
We invite members of this list to inform us of Calls for Papers we've missed --
send a message to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we'll add it to the list.
-- Jack Lynch; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Christine R. Gray <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 29 Aug 1995 09:17:18 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Grad. Programs
My area of research is not Shakespeare--I simply like this list. But I wanted
to put in my .02's worth on the discussion of graduate programs. I received my
PhD from the University of Maryland and was very, very happy there. I don't
know how the dept. is in regard to Shakespeare these days. I do, however, know
that the TA program is excellent and that students with an MA often get their
own sections of Intro to Shakespeare. And, of course, both the Library of
Congress and the Folger are about ten miles away. christine gray
(3)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bradley S. Berens <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 29 Aug 1995 10:46:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 6.0652 Re: Grad. Programs
Comment: Re: SHK 6.0652 Re: Grad. Programs
I agree with Bruce Young's comment that not much attention has been paid to Ms.
Erika Lin's request for info about background reading. However, while I think
that Mr. Young's list of Shakespearean readings is *excellent,* unless Ms. Lin
gets into a Department of Shakespeare Studies that I've never heard of the list
is slightly narrow in focus.
I want to be clear, here: a WONDERFUL list for getting started on Shakespeare,
but there's a lot of other stuff to deal with in early grad school too.
When I started a few years back we were still laboring under the yoke of
deconstruction and its attendant cloudy vocabulary. (Are we still so laboring?
I'm never sure.) Other names and terms get thrown about in a kind of
intellectual terrorism that was, for me, an unhappy experience.
Here are a few titles of books, with explanations. Ladies and Gentlemen:
whaddya think? (The list isn't alphabetized because I'm making it up as I go
along.) Anything that shouldn't be here? Anything crucial that I've missed?
Jonathan Culler's ON DECONSTRUCTION. So much clearer than anything else.
Frank Lentricchia's AFTER THE NEW CRITICISM. Invaluable quasi-history, theory
primer.
Greenblatt & Gunn's REDRAWING THE BOUNDARIES put out by the MLA. A good
introduction to the professionalism aspects of the profession.
Lentricchia and McLaughlin's (eds) CRITICAL TERMS FOR LITERARY STUDY (2nd
edition recently released). Monumentally and obviously useful.
David H. Richter's THE CRITICAL TRADITION: CLASSIC TEXTS AND CONTEMPORARY
TRENDS. The best collection of "everything you wanted to know and all those
articles you can't find" I've seen. By my desk always.
Dictionaries: Chris Baldick's CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF LITERARY TERMS.
Whatever the most recent edition of M. H. Abrams' GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS is
out there. Richard Lanham's HANDLIST OF RHETORICAL TERMS. Lacey's classic
DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY.
For non-exclusively bardolatrous Renaissance drama: Braunmuller and Hattaway's
CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO ENGLISH RENAISSANCE DRAMA.
After you have some theory under your belt, Terry Eagleton's LITERARY THEORY:
AN INTRODUCTION will be useful. I don't think it's a great place to start,
though.
Finally, and this will probably sound peculiar, I'd read David Lodge's novel
SMALL WORLD. Yes! It's a parody (and a good one), but it gives the flavor of
things like the MLA conference and others in a way that no dry essay can.
That's all I can think of right now. Erika, good luck!
Sincerely,
Brad Berens