British Shakespeare Association Biennial Conference 2005
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Programme : Panels - Seminars - Workshops
Panel - Bears and Fairies: Shakespeare and the Invention of
the Non-Human
Sunday 4th
September 2005, 9.30-11.00am, Herschel
Lecture Theatre 1
Participants | Call for Papers
Participants
Convenor - Prof. Lisa
Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University
Richard Wood, Sheffield Hallam University
David Ruiter, University of Texas at El Paso
Urban Moren, Uppsala University
Call for Papers
Below is the original Call for Papers, as circulated. Please note that the date for submissions has passed and the successful participants are listed above.
Convenor: Lisa Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University
While the idea that Shakespeare may have played a significant part in the invention of the concept of the human remains hugely contentious and has been much mocked, little attention has been paid to the converse, and I contend more tenable, proposition that his plays and poems did contribute significantly to cultural constructions of the non-human, particularly of animals and of supernatural beings, both in terms of propagating hugely influential images and in terms of being subsequently invoked as measure of ‘humanity’. This panel would welcome papers which address questions such as:
• In what ways does Shakespeare represent animals, and to what extent
are these ways still influential in thinking about animals?
• What cultural work is performed by Shakespeare’s representations
of witches and fairies? What is the force of the suggestion of the literally
diabolical which hangs over characters like Aaron and Iago? How far did his
imagings of such beings reflect and / or become the cultural norm?
• In the nineteenth century, Caliban offered a favourite trope for imaging
the Irish. How far do discourses of species intersect with those of race in
Shakespeare and / or in subsequent cultural uses of his texts?
• Shakespeare is constantly invoked by both sides of the nineteenth-century
debate about Darwinism. In what ways and to what extent has Shakespeare been
used in attempts to police the boundary between human and non-human?
Contact: Lisa Hopkins (L.M.Hopkins@shu.ac.uk)
