2021

	2021 Programme
10 March 2021 4:30pm AWST	Public Lecture (via Zoom) This event is organised by the Sydney Medieval and Renaissance Group (SMRG), and co-sponsored by PMRG Speaker: Dr Victoria Bladen (UQ) Topic: The Tree of Life and Arboreal Aesthetics in Renaissance culture Abstract: Across early modern European culture grew a rich and complex language of trees that surrounded the concept of the tree of life. It was articulated in a variety of media and forms: illuminated manuscripts, woodcuts, paintings, mosaic, fresco, sculpture, and pageantry. Arboreal motifs and metaphors were a significant vehicle for expressing ideas of spiritual knowledge and articulating religious ideology.  The sources for arboreal iconography lay in biblical text however the meanings that were read from these images extended beyond the textual metaphors to intersect with social ritual, folklore, and the cult of the cross.  We will also see how unsettling forces of otherness lay embedded within such arboreal iconography, particularly apparent in the figure of the Green Man. This paper maps key ideas surrounding the tree of life and its arboreal aesthetics in Renaissance culture, highlighting recurring motifs and ideas, and demonstrating its double nature whereby orthodoxy was shadowed by the Other. Zoom details: Please contact the PMRG Secretary for details [email protected].
15 March 2021 6:30pm AWST	PMRG Annual General Meeting Venue: ALR 8, Arts Building, The University of Western Australia Time: 6:30pm. The Annual General Meeting will be followed by a lecture at 7:00pm: Speaker: Emeritus Professor Chris Wortham (UWA) Topic: ‘Shakespeare and the Forest of Arden’
25 March 2021 9:00pm AWST	Public Lecture (online) Speaker: Professor Andrew Lynch (The University of Western Australia) Topic: ‘Writing War in Postmedieval British Arthurian Literature’ Abstract: This lecture reflects on how modern English literary engagements with Arthurian tradition, from Spenser to Ishiguro, have negotiated the matter of war. Reading this literature for its take on war tells a story, not of the decline and revival of an original ideal, but of continuing transformation under changing conditions that have both evoked and enabled new responses. The postmedieval decline of Arthur’s wars as credible history made them a more adaptable subject for contemporary applications. Amongst these treatments, satirical and critical appropriations are as significant as positive and idealist versions. Together, they show that the matter of war, more than anything else, has made Arthur’s story provoke the attention of succeeding eras and remain connected to lived experience. Online connection details: Please contact the PMRG Secretary for details [email protected].
13 April 2021	CFP Closes for PMRG/MEMS@UWA/Limina Conference: ‘Adaptation in the Humanities: Reimagining the Past, Present, and Future’. Venue: The University of Western Australia More details: https://conference.pmrg.org.au
12 May 2021 5:30pm AWST	Public Lecture (via Zoom) This event is organised by the Sydney Medieval and Renaissance Group (SMRG), and co-sponsored by PMRG Speaker: Dr Blaise Dufal (USyd) Topic: Inventing Medieval Civilisation Abstract: As with “Middle Ages”, the notion of “civilisation” is a very problematic one. Both terms were invented by early modern thinkers as a way to define themselves. “Civilisation” and “Middle Ages” became accepted categories during the 19th century and produced a specific sort of liberal and bourgeois historiography, reinforcing each other. The notion of “civilisation” was always vague and undefined. It took Medieval Western societies as the perfect example of what a civilisation should be – the union of a religion, a culture, and a society. The fantasy of “civilisation” developed in Western historiography at the same time as the fantasy of the “Middle Ages”, continuing from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 21st century. Zoom details: Please contact the PMRG Secretary for details: [email protected].
9–10 September 2021	PMRG/MEMS@UWA/Limina Conference: ‘Adaptation in the Humanities: Reimagining the Past, Present, and Future’ This conference is co-sponsored by the ARC Centre for Excellence for the History of Emotions Venue: The University of Western Australia and online via Zoom More details: https://conference.pmrg.org.au
TBC	PMRG Annual Quiz Night Venue: TBC