CfP: ”Religious Dramas on the Enlightenment Stage: Revelation, Conversion, Martyrdom”
Over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, explicitly Christian forms of theater began to decline in popularity. Rather than see this shift merely as a sign of declining popular belief, this panel seeks to investigate the way that new formal demands complicated the representation of Christian themes.
Frequently dismissed as anachronistic, efforts to revive Christian theater –– whether to found a Christian tragedy or to reinvent martyr drama –– are thus nonetheless interesting for the formalstrategies that they devised to (re)stage Christian genres.
Contributions are welcome that address the persistence of Christian themes on the early modern stage: How were Christian forms –– martyr drama, conversion narrative, saints’ lives –– revived, satirized, or transformed to be made relevant to a new era? What elements of religious narrative were borrowed and replicated on the secular stage? What role did the gender of the protagonist play? And what media (visual, auditory, etc.) were made use of?
The organizers specialize in German and French literature, but contributions that deal with other national traditions or that offer a comparative perspective are welcome.
Interested participants are invited to send a paper proposal of 200-250 words to Peter Erickson (Oakland University) erickson@oakland.edu and Ana Conboy (College of St. Benedict and St. John's University) aconboy@csbsju.edu by September 15th, 2015.
The American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies will be held this year in Pittsburgh, March 31 - April 3, 2016.
Source: Ana Conboy, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of French, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
Announcements: