'New Variations in Texts and Editing'. A seminar at 3.30-5.30pm on 2 April at the 38th meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America (SAA), Chicago 1-3 April 2010. Seminar Leader: Gabriel Egan
Description of Topic Today's editors of Shakespeare differ greatly in editorial philosophy. Some argue the impossibility of editing 'the play' as a mental construct and counsel fidelity to material witnesses. Others apply knowledge and imagination to undo inferred interference (such as posthumous adaptation) to recover a text far removed from its sole surviving witness. This seminar welcomes textual scholars and editors who wish to debate these variations in the theory and practice of text editing and to consider how the field may develop.
Deadlines It's an SAA rule that "Only those seminar members who have performed all assigned work by 19 February 2010 can be listed in the conference program". This rule will be enforced. The interim deadlines are:
15 December 2009 Abstracts due. (Email directly to seminar leader, Gabriel Egan, mail@gabrielegan.com, not the group)
15 January 2010 Full-text papers due (2,000-4,000 words, email directly to seminar leader)
19 February 2010 Due date for two questions for each the person in your groups (email directly to seminar leader)
If any of these deadlines present a problem, please let me know and we'll see if we can work something out. If I don't hear from you, the deadlines (and their related sanctions, ending in deregistration) will be applied without appeal.