SAA Annual Meeting 2023 - Seminar 14: Forsaken Plays - Part Two

Aug 26, 2026

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SAA Annual Meeting 2023 Seminar 14 explores “Forsaken Plays: Part Two” by spotlighting overlooked, neglected, or “weird” early modern English drama that lacks modern editions or sustained critical attention. The seminar examines how centering such texts could reshape literary history, dramatic scholarship, and understanding of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. It also interrogates why certain plays are treated as insignificant or bad, and invites participants to present concise descriptions and questions grounded in focused critical readings and broader meta-critical dialogue.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Seminar 14: Forsaken Plays - Part Two

Seminar Purpose and Scope

Seminar Format and Discussion Approach

Key Papers and Themes

The Virgin Martyr and the Dramaturgies of the (late) Queen Anne’s Men

“This most sacred dish”: Appetitive Desire and Reproductive Futurism in The Woman Hater

“It was Agatha All Along”: Interfering Neighbors and Tudor Interludes

SAA Annual Meeting 2023 Seminar 14: Forsaken Plays: PART TWO Seminar Organizer: Erin E. Kelly, University of Victoria, [ekelly@uvic.ca](ekelly@uvic.ca) Invited respondent: Jeremy Lopez, Montclair State University, [lopezjer@montclair.edu](lopezjer@montclair.edu) [Seminar abstract:](Seminar abstract:) This seminar invites participants to introduce to a captive audience the overlooked, neglected, or weird play they think deserves more scholarly attention. (Advocacy for a play that lacks a modern edition is especially welcome.) How would our understanding of literary history, early modern English drama, or Shakespeare be transformed if we focused on such plays? Along the way, expect to wrestle with questions about what qualities might lead a play to have been treated as insignificant or bad. Seminar proposal: I have learned the best way to start a conversation at SAA is to ask,“What’s a play you find fascinating that it seems almost no one else has read?” Every scholar who works on 16th-and 17th-century drama seems able to argue why a particular play deserves more attention. This seminar will formalize those conversations. The past few decades have witnessed efforts to rethink the canon of early modern English drama and to make more plays readily accessible. Work discussing lost and manuscript plays has enabled us to recontextualize familiar works by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Such research has transformed our understanding of plays and performance history. Yet there are still numerous plays that remain overlooked – even with no modern edition. Some plays included in collected works editions still receive little critical attention. This seminar focuses on the question: What would happen if we centred these forsaken texts? Practically speaking, this seminar will invite participants to introduce for consideration a play they think others should read. Rather than starting with abstracts, members will be asked to share a short description of their play along with questions it raises. The seminar meeting will facilitate discussion of papers that present a short, focused critical reading of an overlooked text while inviting responses that suggest a range of other critical issues. This seminar encourages critical thinking about the examples around which we construct literary and theatre histories – from the centre (with well-known and typical plays) or from the margins (with odd one-offs and exceptions) . It will also foster a meta-critical conversation about how even changing canons calcify as well as questions about how we decide which plays merit our attention. Along the way, we will explore what qualities might lead to a play being considered bad or insignificant. Roberta Barker Dalhousie University [barkerr@dal.ca](barkerr@dal.ca) The Virgin Martyr and the Dramaturgies ofthe (late) Queen Anne’s Men Dekker and Massinger’s The Virgin Martyr (c. 1620) offers a rich and often bizarre early modern take on the tragedia sacra or saint’s play. Scholars disagree sharply on the generic, religious, and political commitments behind the spectacular theatricality, grotesque violence, and disturbing gender politics of this drama, which has yet to benefit from a modern scholarly edition. My essay asks whether the answers to some of these questions might lie in the repertory of the company that premiered the play: “the servants of his Majesties Revels,” aka the Company Formerly Known (before the death of their patroness, Queen Anna of Denmark, in 1619) as Queen Anne’s Men. The Virgin Martyr is marked by a range of recurring tropes and themes that characterized the company’s work in the years immediately before and after Queen Anna’s passing. During this period, the late queen’s men produced a number of plays that feature beleaguered, chaste heroines; tyrannical and misogynist villains; and ambiguously gendered intermediate figures who take up the women’s cause against their oppressors. Through their scenes o

FAQs

What is the main goal of Forsaken Plays: Part Two?

To bring overlooked or neglected early modern plays into scholarly focus and consider how literary and theatre histories change when these “forsaken” texts are centered rather than marginalised.

Why does the seminar emphasize plays that lack modern editions?

Because the lack of accessible modern editions often contributes to limited critical attention, and the seminar seeks to support scholarly advocacy for such works and to reframe what counts as significant.

How does the seminar discussion work in practice?

Participants share a short description of their chosen play and the questions it raises, enabling discussion of papers built on concise, focused critical readings while inviting related critical issues.

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Mia