Contextualizing the Renaissance Returns to History: Selected Proceedings from the 28th Annual Cemers Conference (Late Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 1)

The 28th Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, held on 21-22 October 1994 at Binghamton University, featured 33 panel sessions and approximately 150 presentations. The ten essays in this volume consist of the five plenary speakers - leaders in their field - and five panel essays, each of which was reviewed for this volume. The volume comprises a body of work organised around a governing theme - modes of historicisation. Each of the essays demonstrates the practice of or a commentary upon a distinctive historicised criticism. By 'historicised' as contrasted with 'historical' criticism, it is meant that these essays problematicise, stretch or reconceive traditional historical practices. Challenging the notion that the production of paintings, dramatic texts or even conduct books can be read against a stable historical ground, they show that paintings, works of literature, and treatises not only participate in history but are exemplars of textual instability. The very content of these texts can be shown, in various editions, to change over time - and yet each bears a single, determinate title. In such ways the contributions gathered here all show that they have been affected by 'the new history'. Introduction: Trends in Historicizing Early Modern Literature, History, and the Visual Arts / ALBERT H. TRICOMI 1 PART ONE. Literature and History as Critical Practices Writing the History of the Present: Contextualizing Early Modem Literature / JEAN E. HOWARD 21 Mapping Theory in History: Conceptual Cites and Social Sites in the French Monarchie State / SARAH HANLEY 41 Dueling and Civility in Sixteenth-Century ltaly / DAVID QUINT 67 The Place of Vives's 'Instruction of a Christen Woman' in Early Modern English Domestic Book Literature / MARGARET MIKESELL 105 PART TWO. Rehistoricizing Through the Visual Arts Motivating History / KEITH MOXEY 119 Tainted Image/Sacred Image: The Wandering Madonna of S. Maria in Vallicella / LAURA MACCASKEY 141 Viewing Foucault Viewing Velásquez's 'Las Meniñas' / JAMES BYRNES 157 PART THREE. New Historicism and Representation Form and Pressure: Shakespearean Drama and the Elizabethan State / LOUIS MONTROSE 171 Embodying Origins: An Anatomy of a Yeoman's Daughter, Spenser's Argante, and Elizabeth I / DAVID KINAHAN 203 Reading History, Reading Power, Reading Plays: Graham Holderness on Shakespeare's History Plays / WILLIAM O. SCOTT 221 Writing The History Of The Present : Contextualizing Early Modern Literature / Jean E. Howard -- Mapping Theory In History : Conceptual Cites And Social Sites In The French Monarchic State / Sarah Hanley -- Dueling And Civility In Sixteenth-century Italy / David Quint -- The Place Of Vives' Instruction Of A Christen [sic] Woman In Early Modern English Domestic Book Literature / Margaret Mikesell -- Motivating History / Keith Moxey -- Tainted Image, Sacred Image : The Wandering Madonna Of S. Maria In Vallicella / Laura Maccaskey -- Viewing Foucault Viewing Velásquez's Las Meniñas / James Byrnes -- Form And Pressure : Shakespearean Drama And The Elizabethan State / Louis Montrose -- Embodying Origins : An Anatomy Of A Yeoman's Daughter, Spenser's Argante, And Elizabeth I / David Kinahan -- Reading History, Reading Power, Reading Plays / Graham Holderness On Shakespeare's History Plays / William O. Scott. Edited By Albert H. Tricomi. Includes Bibliographical References.