Roundtable: Transnational Currents and Early Modern Women Dramatists in England, France, Holland, Italy, and Spain

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

RSA sessions on women writers have grown commensurate with the steady recovery of female-authored texts. Yet, because these panels traditionally segregate by nationality, scholars may be missing opportunities to examine cross-cultural trends and influences on women’s texts. Focusing on British and Continental women dramatists, this round table will raise questions that could point the way toward new avenues of research. Comparative questions we will explore include reception and performance, gender restraints on subject matter, strategies for justifying the circulation of female-authored texts, the appeal and usefulness of dramatic genres, and women dramatists’ awareness of their contemporaries in other cultures. We will conclude by considering new research agendas that encourage collaboration among scholars who work on British and Continental early modern female playwrights. In this way, we hope to foster wider understandings of individual women dramatists and of their collective significance within literary and cultural history.

Sub Unit

• RSA Annual Meeting

Organizers

• Barbara Burgess-Van Aken, Case Western Reserve University

• Elizabeth H. Hageman, University of New Hampshire

Chairs

• Elizabeth H. Hageman, University of New Hampshire

• Barbara Burgess-Van Aken, Case Western Reserve University

Discussants

• Karen Britland, University of Wisconsin–Madison

• Julie D. Campbell, Eastern Illinois University

• Nieves Romero-Díaz, Mount Holyoke College

• Martine Van Elk, California State University, Long Beach