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VIRTUAL IAS Book Launch: Prodigality in Early Modern Drama
10 November 2021, 5:00 pm鈥�6:30 pm
We welcome Dr Ezra Horbury (果冻影院) to launch their new book. Introduction by Prof Raphael Lyne (University of Cambridge) and discussion/interview by Dr Mary Odbert.
This event is free.
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- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
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Institute of Advanced Studies
This monograph,听Prodigality in Early Modern Drama听(Boydell and Brewer), investigates how 鈥榩rodigality鈥� (immorally excessive spending) evolved from a personal moral failing into a celebrated societal boon during the early modern period. It draws new connections between gender and spending against the contexts of familial and religious authority and illuminates a crucial concept in the development of proto-capitalism. Through close readings of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and other dramatists, contextualised alongside philosophical and theological approaches to spending and excess, it offers the first definition of early modern prodigality.
The launch will open with an introduction by Prof Raphael Lyne (University of Cambridge), outlining the key issues the book addresses and contextualising its contributions. It will then move into a structured discussion/interview between Dr Mary Odbert (Shakespeare Institute) and the author to cover the book鈥檚 generation, its major contributions to the field, the content of its five chapters, and the other work it has informed.
All welcome. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need assistance on the day, and follow this听FAQ听link for more information and to read our virtual events听code of conduct. All of our events are free, but you can support the IAS听here.
About the Speakers
Dr Ezra Horbury
British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at 果冻影院
Dr Ezra Horbury听completed their Ph.D at the University of Cambridge and is currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at 果冻影院. Their research interests span the cultural uses of religion and the gendering of non-normative embodiment and they have published widely in journals spanning literature, theology, and queer theory. Their current research studies the cultural uses of the margin in early modern bibles, while their forthcoming research investigates early modern transgender bodies.
鈥嬧�嬧�嬧�嬧�嬧�嬧�婸rof Raphael Lyne
Professor of Renaissance Literature and a Fellow and Director of Studies at Murray Edwards College at University of Cambridge
Prof Raphael Lyne听is Professor of Renaissance Literature and a Fellow and Director of Studies at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. His early research focused on the classical influences of English writers in the 16th and 17th centuries, but he turned increasingly to Shakespeare and then to the connections between literary criticism and cognitive science. He has published four books:听Ovid's Changing Worlds: English Metamorphoses 1567-1632听(2001),听Shakespeare's Late Work听(2007),听Shakespeare, Rhetoric and Cognition听(2011), and most recently听Memory and Intertextuality in Renaissance Literature听(2016).
Dr Mary Odbert
Dr Mary Odbertearned her PhD at the University of Birmingham鈥檚 Shakespeare Institute where she focused on early modern corporeal identity. Developing on her earlier work in blood across conceptual and visceral contexts, she pursued an interdisciplinary approach to the homeostatic corpus within identity formation. This is being developed into a monograph, titled听Corporeal Selfhood: Visceral Identity in Shakespeare and Early Modern Medicine. Alongside her work with the body, she is also interested in material cultures, queer theory, adaptation, and the occult. Her latest work explores the social and cultural impacts of infection during the Dancing Plague of 1518.