Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

Problematics of European Literary History, 1559-1648

Thursday 24 May 2018, 1.00PM

Speaker(s): Professor Warren Boutcher (Queen Mary, University of London)

This talk will concern a new project I am contracted to edit for Oxford University

Press: Europe: A Literary History, 1559-1648. It is a follow-up to David Wallace’s

highly successful volumes on 1348-1418, published by OUP in 2016. But EALH 1559-

1648 will use a different methodology: the chapters will be on literary objects and

classes of objects rather than on places that link up to form itineraries. What are the

main questions and problems facing such a project? How can I work with

contributors to construct a holistic account of this period of European literary

history—including its emergent global connections— of a kind that is not simply built

from pre-determined blocks of western European national literatures? That does not

just project back the institutions and perspectives of the modern ‘literary’ field? That

engages with Wallace’s project to begin to trace common ground—if not a unified

theory—for a transnational literary historiography?

Location: Room SLP/001, Spring Lane Building