Author: Bruce McClintock

2023 Conference a success

PMRG’s thirtieth conference, Fate & Fortune, was a success, with stimulating papers ranging from Beowulf to Shakespeare and Milton, via Old Norse-Icelandic sagas, eleventh-century climate change and monastic medicinal prognosis, an ecocritical look at Scottish chronicles and literature, and a comparative analysis of three texts, from Europe, India, and China. Contributors attended either in person or livestreaming from as far as the USA and Europe. It was kickstarted by Kirk Essary’s keynote on Erasmus’s views on fortune and fate as seen in his Adagia and letters, followed by a brief history of PMRG highlighting our debt to its ‘onlie begetter’, Chris Wortham, who presented a paper forty-two years after his first for PMRG in 1981. Those attending in person networked over tea breaks and lunch, and at an informal gathering at Steve’s Hotel.

End-of-year picnic

On Friday, 8 December, there will be an informal end-of-year picnic for members and friends, who are asked to bring a plate, drinks and good cheer!

It will start from 6.00 pm on the Matilda Bay foreshore, just to the left (when facing the river) of the Bayside Kitchen kiosk.

 

 

Vale Dr Anne M. Scott

It was with great sadness that we learned of the death in September 2021 of our esteemed colleague Dr Anne M. Scott (UWA). Anne was the Convenor of the Australian Research Council Network for Early European Research (2006–2010), editor of Parergon (2006–2016), former President and long standing committee member of the Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group (PMRG), and honorary researcher in the School of Humanities at The University of Western Australia. Anne made an extraordinary contribution as a researcher and academic leader of the first order, and will be greatly missed.

‘Adaptation in the Humanities’ conference: registration now open!

Registration is now open to those who are attending the ‘Adaptation in the Humanities: Reimagining the Past, Present, and Future’ conference either in person or online.

The conference fee is $10 AUD for virtual attendance, and $30 AUD for in person (booking fees apply).

Register for the conference: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/adaptation-in-the-humanities-reimagining-the-past-present-and-future-tickets-156041041957.

Download a copy of the conference programme.

Online public lecture: ‘The Tree of Life and Arboreal Aesthetics in Renaissance culture’ (Speaker: Dr. Victoria Bladen, UQ)

PMRG’s first event of the year will be the first of two lectures by Dr. Victoria Bladen, who teaches in literary studies and adaptation at the University of Queensland.

The first talk will be Zoomed live from Brisbane on Wednesday March 10 at 4:30pm (AWST), but will be recorded for ease of access for all PMRG members. This is an event organised by the Sydney group (SMRG) and the first of PMRG’s Guest Speaker events for 2021. There will be a second lecture in April/May for PMRG (details to be announced).

Here are the details for the first talk on March 10:

The Tree of Life and Arboreal Aesthetics in Renaissance culture

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.


Dr Victoria Bladen teaches in literary studies and adaptation at The University of Queensland, Australia and has twice received a Faculty award for teaching excellence. Her publications include six Shakespearean text guides in the Insight (Melbourne) series, including The Merchant of Venice (2020) and Much Ado About Nothing (2019), and five co-edited volumes, including Shakespeare on Screen: King Lear (Cambridge UP 2019), and Shakespeare and the Supernatural (Manchester UP 2020). Her forthcoming monograph The Tree of Life and Arboreal Aesthetics in Early Modern Literature will be published by Routledge in their World Literature and the Environment series.

Victoria’s presentation will be at 4:30pm Perth time, 6:30pm Brisbane time and 7:30pm Sydney time.

For Zoom details please contact the PMRG Secretary: [email protected].