Modernity and its Discontents

Malaise(s) dans la modernité

Society for Early Modern French Studies

Fortieth Annual Conference

Durham Castle

11-13 September 2017

PROGRAMME

Monday 11September

14.15-14.45Arrival and Registration

14.45Welcome, Richard Parish, Chairman of the Society

15.00-16.00Session 1:

Chair: Timothy Chesters

Cécile TRESFELS (Stanford University)

Remembering the Past, Apprehending the Future: Fear and Knowledge in Marguerite de Valois’ Memoirs

John O’BRIEN (Durham University)

Modernity, the Dispassionate Historian and the Reader in Agrippa d’Aubigné’s Histoire Universelle

16.00-16.30Tea

16.30-18.00Session 2:

Chair: Richard Scholar

Alice ROULLIÈRE (Trinity Hall, Cambridge)

Ronsard and the ghost of Astyanax

Anthony BRUDER (King’s College, Cambridge)

Counter-Cultural Elements in the Recueil of Claude Fauchet

Rowan TOMLINSON (University of Bristol)

‘Escrivons tous, sçavans et non sçavans’: the profession of writing, social status, and ideals of style in the vernacular Republic of Letters (1556-1621)

18.15-19.15Drinks reception, Hatfield College

19.15Dinner, Hatfield College

Tuesday 12 September

9.00-10.30Session 3:

Chair: Rowan Tomlinson

William McKENZIE (Durham University)

‘Un fond […] limonneux et poisant’ (or)

How Montaigne muddies the pool of modern narcissism

Adam HORSLEY (University of Nottingham)

‘Imite qui voudra les merveilles d’autrui’: Modernity and Imitation at the Trial of Théophile de Viau

Jonathan PATTERSON (St Hilda’s College, Oxford)

In whose interest? Rhetorical arguments about monetary reform in the early seventeenth century

10.30-11.00Coffee

11.00-12.30Session 4:

Chair: John O’Brien

Jan CLARKE (Durham University)

Modern versus Ancient in the Décor of the Seventeenth-Century French Stage

Ramona-Dana LUNGU (University of Bristol)

Longepierre’s Électre:a different way of telling the same story

Joanna BARKER (Durham University)

Ancient Men & Modern Women: Madame Dacier and the Querelle d’Homère

13.00-14.00Lunch

14.00-15.00AGM

15.00-16.00Session 5: Keynote paper:

Chair: Richard Parish

Michael MORIARTY (Cambridge University)

Pascal’s Modernity

16.00-16.30Tea

16.30-18.00Tour of Castle and free time

Vin d’honneur, Tunstal Gallery, Durham Castle

and Book Launch: Managing Time: Literature & Devotion in Early Modern France, ed. Richard Maber & Joanna Barker

Conference Dinner, Senate Room, Durham Castle

Wednesday 13 September

9.30-10.30Session 6:

Chair: Michael Moriarty

William DINNING (London)

Pascal, Reluctant Modernist?

Lisa AL-FARADZH (Murray Edwards College, Cambridge)

The Port-Royal Bible and the challenge of modernity

10.30-11.00Coffee

11.00-12.00Session 7:

Chair: Noël Peacock

Jean-Alexandre PERRAS (Jesus College, Oxford)

The Decay of Genius: Petits Maîtres and Butterflies

Robin HOWELLS (Birkbeck, Uiversity of London)

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s ‘Entretiens’ (1773): rewriting Fontenelle

12.00-12.30Session 8:

Chair: John Lyons

Linda NAUNAPPER (Independent Scholar, Wisconsin and Illinois Archaeological Surveys, USA)

Leaving the Ancien Régime Behind: Archaeology and the Culture History of Frontier New France

12.30Concluding remarks, Richard Parish, Chairman of the Society

13.00Lunch

CLOSE OF CONFERENCE