The Early Modern Line: A Postgraduate Workshop

We warmly invite students of all disciplines to attend and take part in a relaxed and informal discussion on 'the early modern line'. Please bring your lunch if you'd like and we'll provide some tea/coffee.

We hope this workshop will bring together a number of questions relating to lines in their material, conceptual, or metaphorical roles, and allow us to explore the ways in which we might use these questions to examine fundamental aspects of the early modern world. How do we conceptualise lines of text, lines of thread, architectural lines or artistic lines? How does the line feature in our critical framework (notions of linearity, narratological lines, lineation as a formal property, etc). How is the metaphor of the line applied to early modern thought, text or culture? How do lines, of any sort, feature in notions of time, space, organisation, communication, decoration, cartography, science, genealogy, or any other subject? How do individuals approach the line in their work or thought, and might these uncover larger questions about conceptions and uses of lines in this period?

These questions are intended only to provide some possible starting points, so please feel free to bring further lines of enquiry. We are keen for this workshop to be inclusive and wide-ranging, and thoroughly encourage perspectives from all disciplines, as well as perspectives from other periods. We are particularly keen for this event to stimulate interdisciplinary discussion, and would greatly encourage postgraduates in all areas to consider how their own research or interests might touch on any of the questions above.

There will be some short reading materials distributed beforehand, but these will be designed to provide a starting place for the discussion, so do please come along even if you don't get a chance to do any reading beforehand!

We look forward to seeing you there,

Claire Canavan, Craig Farrell and Frances Maguire
The Cabinet of Curiosities
curiositycabinet2010@googlemail.com