Letter from the MSA President
Most of us can measure our interest in the MSA by an international conference, an MLA session, or a collection of essays on Marlowe representing recent trends in the scholarship. For me, the landmarks are the 1993 international conference in Cambridge, the 1997 MLA in Toronto, and the publication of Marlowe’s Empery, eds. Sara Deats and Bob Logan in 2002. These activities continue to define the contribution of the MSA to scholarly discussions of Marlowe and his contemporaries, and I am happy to report that plans for an international conference in 2013 are underway. Also, several publications rich in MSA connections are now available or forthcoming: the spring issue of Shakespeare Bulletin, “Marlowe the Playmaker,” is out (eds. Roslyn L. Knutson and Pierre Hecker; 27.1 [2009]); an essay collection edited by Sara Deats for the Continuum Renaissance Drama series, Doctor Faustus: A Critical Guide, is in press; an essay collection growing out of the 2008 international conference, Christopher Marlowe the Craftsman, eds. Michael Stapleton and Sarah Scott, is due for publication in 2010; and in the works is a six-volume set on the University Wits, general editor Bob Logan, with Logan as editor of the “Marlowe” volume in that set.
There are also developments in the relationship of the MSA and MLA. As in past years, we are sponsoring two sessions at MLA in Philadelphia. The first, scheduled on Tuesday, December 29 @ 3:30 pm, is entitled “Ghostly Hands and Marlowe Documents,” and it features presentations by Paul Menzer, Jeremy Lopez, and Allyna Ward. The second, “Practicalities of Performing Marlowe,” is scheduled on Wednesday, December 30 @ 1:45 pm. This will be a roundtable discussion of performance issues. Panelists are Pierre Hecker, Jeff Dailey, Brett Foster, and Irene Middleton, but the conversation will be open to the audience and we want a lively exchange. Please note the compact schedule of the MLA sessions, which allows you to catch both in one twenty-four hour stretch.
As you know, MLA voted a major change last year in its calendar and its arrangements with allied organizations. After the 2009 post-Christmas meeting, MLA will hold its annual convention on the first weekend following New Year’s. So there will not be a “2010” meeting per se; the 2010 meeting will be in January 2011. And for that January 2011, the MSA – as an allied organization – will have only one session guaranteed. However, all allied organizations have been promised priority consideration for sessions offered in partnership. Consequently, Katherine Eggert, president of the International SpenserSociety, and I are working on plans to propose a session on Spenser and Marlowe. We are thinking of a broad call for papers titled simply “Spenser and Marlowe,” to test interest in our scholarly communities. I welcome your input on this new venture. In particular, I urge you to consider those topics in your research that bring Spenser and Marlowe together in a fruitful way and submit an abstract in the call for papers next spring. We would like for this partnership with the ISA to bring MSA members fresh and provocative scholarly opportunities.
Roslyn L. Knutson
University of Arkansas at Little Rock