Schedule / Horaire
Saturday 26 April 2014, 15h-17h.
Room: Vendôme.
Leaders / Organisateurs
Imke Lichterfeld, Universität Bonn (Germany), and Yan Brailowsky, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense (France)
Participants
- Justin Kolb, American University in Cairo (Egypt)
“The Dissolution of the Engine of this World”: History and the Decay of Nature in History - Lee Rooney, University of Liverpool (UK)
‘A prophet to the fall of all our foes!’: Joan la Pucelle, prophecy, and the challenging of history in 1 Henry VI - Jessica Malay, University of Huddersfield (UK)
Opposing interpretations of sibylline dynastic prophecy in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Fletcher’s The Prophetess - Craig Bourne, University of Hertfordshire (UK), and Emily Caddick Bourne, University of Cambridge / University of London (UK)
Prophecy and misunderstanding in Macbeth - Per Sivefors, Linnaeus University (Sweden)
Prophecies, dreams and epistemological change in early modern drama - Oriane Littardi, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 (France)
“What are you?”: Identifying Anonymous Prophets in Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Histories - Jordi Coral, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain)
“Can Curses Pierce the Clouds and Enter Heaven?”: Prophecy and Imprecation in Richard III - Kristin M. Distel, Ashland University (USA)
“By the pricking of my thumbs”: Corporeal Omens in Shakespeare’s Tragedies - Nathalie Borrelli, Université de Namur (Belgium)
Shakespeare’s Prophesying Witches - Patricia Harris Stablein Gillies, University of Essex (UK)
The Crowned Eye: Visual Space and Prophecy in 1 Henry VI
Abstracts / Résumés
1. Justin Kolb, American University in Cairo (Egypt)
“The Dissolution of the Engine of this World”: History and the Decay of Nature in History
Published after the portentous earthquake and blazing comet that marked the year 1580, Francis Shakelton’s Blazing Star warns of “dissolution of the Engine of this World.” Shakelton warned of “the Decay of Nature,” a concept that became widespread in the 17th century, sanctioning the use of art and science to amend, improve, or replace natural processes. Transitioning from Shakleton, my paper will focus on Richard II, and its repeated invocations of an organic commonwealth of man and nature displaced by power politics. I will argue for the relevance of the “decay of nature” discourse to the problems of history plays.
2. Lee Rooney, University of Liverpool (UK)
‘A prophet to the fall of all our foes!’: Joan la Pucelle, prophecy, and the challenging of history in 1 Henry VI
In Shakespeare’s 1 Henry VI, Joan’s claims to divine sanction and prescience problematise the fixity and inevitability of history-yet-to-come that we would expect the chronicles to guarantee, challenging the narrative of English exceptionalism that can be read into them. This paper argues that, by considering Joan within the context of the play’s apocalyptic dimension, she seems to promise a cataclysmic alternate future — something that would constitute an outrageous defiance of the prescriptions of the English chronicles. Joan, through her relationship to prophecy, becomes an emblem for and a source of the chaos that defines the early reign of Henry VI.
3. Jessica Malay, University of Huddersfield (UK)
Opposing interpretations of sibylline dynastic prophecy in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Fletcher’s The Prophetess
In Macbeth Shakespeare portrays the sibylline figures from his source texts into the demonic figures. He acknowledges the power of prophecy to influence dynastic change, but shares the growing anxiety about prophesy in English culture. In contrast, John Fletcher’s play, The Prophetess constructs a Sibylline character out of the many diverse and traditions surrounding the figure, presenting a character of divine power rather than satanic depravity. The play challenges contemporary dramatic productions that present the Sibyl or prophetess figure.
4. Craig Bourne, University of Hertfordshire (UK), and Emily Caddick Bourne, University of Cambridge / University of London (UK)
Prophecy and misunderstanding in Macbeth
Macbeth’s themes of foreknowledge, fate and freedom make it intriguing to philosophers. Robin Le Poidevin has recently argued that the play represents a world where the future is ‘fixed’. We present an alternative account which understands Macbeth’s prophecies and omens as devices guiding expectations about how the play itself will develop, and, thus, as revealing more about the representation itself than the world it represents. We examine what the two accounts reveal about the importance of prophecies and omens to themes of inevitability. Finally, we consider Macbeth’s own response to prophecies, identifying a serious mistake he makes about their significance.
5. Per Sivefors, Linnaeus University (Sweden)
Prophecies, dreams and epistemological change in early modern drama
This paper proposes that prophetic dreams in early modern plays are also a source of unease, in the sense that the “prophetic” value of them is frequently made problematic. Drawing on plays by Lyly, Webster and Shakespeare, the paper connects such tendenices to changing notions of the human psyche and to a gradual loss in the epistemological prestige of prophetic dreams. From the idea that dreams foresee the future, early modern drama comes to reflect the idea that dreams tell us something about the dreamer him- or herself.
6. Oriane Littardi, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 (France)
“What are you?”: Identifying Anonymous Prophets in Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Histories
Prophets possess a puzzling identity, especially knowing that many of them remain anonymous. The absence of a name hinders the process of identification and we are driven to look for other signs that are given by theatrical devices, as physical appearance or speech. However, the concept of identity is not only, as we understand it in its ordinary meaning, the question of the name. It comprehends, above all else, the issues of the being as it is one and the same. Indeed, the uniqueness and the sameness of the prophet present an instability that echoes the world they evolve in.
7. Jordi Coral, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain)
“Can Curses Pierce the Clouds and Enter Heaven?”: Prophecy and Imprecation in Richard III
This paper examines a variant of prophecy that is distinctively performative in nature, namely, the curse. It focusses on Margaret’s spectacular malediction of the protagonist in Richard III, which constitutes an act of psychic aggression as much as the prediction of an individual’s fate. Whether the destruction of super-self-possessed Richard bears testimony to the workings of a providential force beyond his control or, conversely, serves to confirm that we are dependent on others for our integrity, the play remains a disturbingly ambiguous one, reflecting the evolving conception of vengeance in an increasingly desacralized world.
8. Kristin M. Distel, Ashland University (USA)
“By the pricking of my thumbs”: Corporeal Omens in Shakespeare’s Tragedies
My paper illustrates the significance of corporeality when interpreting omens in the tragedies. I will especially examine Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. I will argue that some of the most meaningful portents take place through a character’s physical body. These bodily forebodings illustrate the characters’ intense entrenchment in their respective crises. Shakespeare’s choice of the body as a portentous object lends itself to a New Historical reading of the tragedies. That is, the characters’ physical connectedness to fate, prophecy, and omens provides insight into the functions of the body and of literature in Shakespeare’s England.
9. Nathalie Borrelli, Université de Namur (Belgium)
Shakespeare’s Prophesying Witches
The weïrd sisters, Joan of Arc and Margery Jordan are five female characters in Shakespeare’s plays for whom the designation ‘witch’ is not merely a term of abuse but also a reference to their prophesying roles. In this paper I will first demonstrate how the ambiguous and intangible nature of the actual practice of prophesying influences Shakespeare’s choice of words to denominate these ‘prophesying characters’ as well as the structure of their prophecies. Subsequently I will compare these witches’ fictional prophecies to one another as well as to typical non-fictional Renaissance prophecies and discuss their role in the plays concerned.
10. Patricia Harris Stablein Gillies, University of Essex (UK)
The Crowned Eye: Visual Space and Prophecy in 1 Henry VI
The conflicted status of monarchy, both English and French, disturbs the association of prophecy with the crown in 1 Henry VI. The issue of prophecy and its location in the royal crown is posed in the contrast of the funeral speeches that open Henry VI, Part I. Prophetic blindness also afflicts the French who were Henry V’s “dazzled” adversaries. The disruption of visionary kingship embraces playwright, spectator, player and theatrical space. All those convened to the crown play at resolving contradictory prophecies.