{"id":2211,"date":"2018-09-08T13:14:17","date_gmt":"2018-09-08T13:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=2211"},"modified":"2018-09-08T13:55:02","modified_gmt":"2018-09-08T13:55:02","slug":"conference-report-character-to-caricature-1660-1850","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=2211","title":{"rendered":"Conference Report: ‘Character to Caricature, 1660-1850’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A report from the conference held at Northumbria University on 3 September 2018 (part-funded by BARS<\/a>). Call for papers and programme here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

‘Character to Caricature, 1660-1850’: by Jenny Buckley<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Character to Caricature\u2019 was an interdisciplinary conference held at the Institute for Humanities at Northumbria University on 3 September, 2018. Bringing together scholars from across the UK, the conference desired to build upon current understandings of character. More particularly, it sought to explore character\u2019s wider narratological implications and transmedial qualities in the long eighteenth century. With \u2018character\u2019 open to a range of definitions \u2013 from that which is branded or stamped, to styles of writing, distinctive personalities, moral and mental qualities, and status or official rank \u2013 given our particular historical moment, the way in which we understand the credibility and believability of character seems due for a re-evaluation.<\/p>\n

To begin to grapple with these questions, the conference opened with a session on \u2018Performing Parodies\u2019, before featuring sessions on \u2018Situating the Satirical\u2019 and \u2018Curating Character\u2019. First to present was Montana Davies-Shuck (University of Northumbria) whose paper addressed \u2018Fops, Monkeys, and Caricature\u2019. She discussed the ways English gentlemen ape French fashions, becoming foppish in their pretensions and mannerisms and paid particular attention to caricatures of Louis Bourbon as \u2018Louis Baboon.\u2019 Next was David Barrow (University of York), who explored the way King Alfred was appropriated in the eighteenth-century as a way to respond to negative perceptions of the house of Hanover.<\/p>\n

Characters and Caricaturas \u2013 William Hogarth (1743)<\/p><\/div>\n

Refreshed after morning coffee, Adam James Smith (York St. John University) took us into the world of Tory satire, considering \u2018The Partisan Hailing of \u201cThe Satirist\u201d in the work of Joseph Addison and Alexander Pope\u2019. Smith addressed the ways in which, for those in power, partisan hailing became a mode of simultaneously punching upwards and downwards. Continuing our exploration of periodicals, Mary Chadwick (University of Huddersfield) introduced us to the fascinating world of manuscript magazines. Focussing on the Breakfast Courant<\/em>, she explored the use of animals in periodicals, paying particular attention to Welsh goats, Russian bears, and Addison and Steele\u2019s lion. Olivia Ferguson (University of Edinburgh) delved into Walter Scott\u2019s extensive collection of caricatures, considering the way in which only the author can genuinely illustrate their own work.<\/p>\n

Following lunch, Ben Jackson (QMUL) opened with his paper \u2018The Thrill of the Chaise: Gendering the Phaeton in Literary Satirical Culture, 1770-1820\u2019. Jackson addressed the way in which carriage ownership revealed a man\u2019s character with phaeton\u2019s being the sign of the man ready to marry, while the possession of a carriage indicates that he has settled down. Fiona Milne (University of York) considered the way character was used in the courtroom in her paper on character defence and allegory in William Hone\u2019s trials of 1817. Concluding the session, Hannah Moss (University of Sheffield) entered the world of visual and verbal caricatures of female artistic endeavour, challenging traditional (and also Austen\u2019s) definition of the attributes that were required for a woman to be characterised as truly accomplished.<\/p>\n

The keynote session was delivered by Dr Elaine McGirr (University of Bristol). Titled \u2018Uniquely Typical; Typically Unique: a meditation on the paradox of character\u2019, McGirr\u2019s paper explored characters from Robinson Crusoe to Boris Johnson, considered the penchant for modern panel shows and the blurring of the boundary between politicians and celebrities. Her paper offered an opportunity for a wider reflection on the ways in which understanding the history of character and the ensuing cult of personality is a concern that is rooted in the eighteenth century but which inflects our culture today.<\/p>\n

The event was an opportunity to engage with a range of new approaches to thinking about character in the long eighteenth century, and to build upon the influential studies by Deidre Lynch, Lisa Freeman, Jane Moody, and Julie Park. We are very grateful to BARS for supporting this conference, and for the financial assistance that enabled us to offer bursaries to postgraduate and ECR speakers.<\/p>\n

‘Character to Caricature’ conference Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report from the conference held at Northumbria University on 3 September 2018 (part-funded by BARS). Call for papers and programme here. ‘Character to Caricature, 1660-1850’: by Jenny Buckley \u2018Character… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2216,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211\/revisions\/2216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}