Penn State
University

Committee for Early Modern Studies

College of
Liberal Arts

Monstrous Bodies / Political Monstrosities in the Early Modern Period: A Symposium

November 10-11, 2000

Lipcon Auditorium, Palmer Museum of Art

The Pennsylvania State University

Schedule

Friday, November 10

7:00-7:30 p.m. Registration

*seating is limited, so please come early!

7:30 p.m.* Session One:

Welcome: Susan Welch, Dean, College of the Liberal Arts

Moderator: Guido Ruggiero, Professor of History and Josephine Berry Weiss Chair in the Humanities, Penn State

Peter Burke, Reader in Cultural History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

"Frontiers of the Monstrous: National Characters in Early Modern Europe"

Reception to follow in Palmer Museum Lobby



Saturday, November 11

8:45-9:15 a.m. Coffee and Registration

9:15-10:15 Session Two:

Moderator: Brian Curran, Assistant Professor of Art History, Penn State

Barbara Stafford, William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago

"Analogy or The Dialectics of Love"

10:15-10:30 Coffee

10:30-12:15 Session Three:

Moderator: Linda Woodbridge, Professor of English, Penn State

David Cressy, Professor of History, Ohio State University

"Lamentable, strange, and wonderful: headless monsters in the English Revolution"

Laura Knoppers, Associate Professor of English, Penn State University

"’The Antichrist, the Babilon, the great dragon’: Monstrous Representations of Oliver Cromwell"

12:15- 2:00 Lunch break

2:00–3:45 Session Four:

Moderator: Christine Clark Evans, Associate Professor of French, Women’s Studies, and African and African-American Studies, Penn State

Timothy Hampton, Professor of French, Comparative Literature, and Italian Studies, University of California at Berkeley

"Monstrosity, Metamorphosis, and the Limits of Allegory"

Joan Landes, Professor of Women’s Studies and History, Penn State University

"Revolutionary Anatomies in Eighteenth-Century France"

3:45- 4:00 Coffee

4:00-4:30 Concluding Session: Roundtable Discussion

Moderator: Garrett Sullivan, Assistant Professor of English, Penn State

7:00 Group Dinner India Pavilion, 222 E. Calder Way


Monstrous Bodies / Political Monstrosities, with speakers from Art History, History, French, Women’s Studies, and English, will provide an interdisciplinary forum for discussion of the nature and significance of the monstrous in the early modern period. Sessions will address the boundaries of social, cultural, and political order in the early modern period, considering such questions as: what is the relationship between the human and the monstrous in early modern texts? How do individuals and societies define themselves against / through the monstrous? How does the monstrous function as an aesthetic and political category?


Registration fee: The Symposium is free and open to the public.

Fee for optional meal: Saturday night dinner at the India Pavilion: $20

If you wish to be included in the Saturday night dinner, please respond by October 20. Checks only, made out to The Pennsylvania State University.

Please return to:

Laura Knoppers

Department of English

116 Burrowes Building

The Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA 16802



Location and Accommodations:

Monstrous Bodies / Political Monstrosities in the Early Modern Period will be held in the Palmer Museum of Art on the University Park campus of The Pennsylvania State University.

A limited number of rooms have been set aside at the Nittany Lion Inn, located on the northwest corner of the campus. Out-of-town participants should identify the conference by name and reserve rooms by October 10, 2000 at:

The Nittany Lion Inn

200 West Park Avenue

State College, PA

Phone 1-800-233-7505 or (814) 865-8550

Single Occupancy: $99

Double Occupancy: $109

All rates are subject to applicable sales and occupancy taxes


Sponsored by:

This Symposium is a program of the Committee for Early Modern Studies, sponsored by the Humanities Consortium, College of the Liberal Arts, The Pennsylvania State University.


For further information:

Contact Laura Knoppers or Guido Ruggiero, Co-directors, Committee for Early Modern Studies


University Policies:

Penn State encourages individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing special accommodations or have questions about the physical access available, please contact Betsy Warner at (814) 865-7672.


Image is taken from Emblema Vivente, ou, Noticia de hum Portentoso Monstro (1727). Courtesy of Rare Books and Manuscripts Division, Special Collections Library, The Pennsylvania State University Libraries.