We are holding a series of events over the course of the project to bring together scholars to offer literary and historical perspectives on non-elite writing.
Writing Work: Non Elite Writers and Work in Seventeenth Century England
When: 28 April 2023, 09:00 — 18:00
Venue: Birkbeck, University of London, 43 Gordon Square
What do non-elite writers tell us about work, and how can we deepen our understanding of the ways in which they conceptualised labour? Please join us to explore the conceptualisation of labour in seventeenth century England and to think about the ways in which we can investigate and articulate the texts that tell us about work as well as what kinds of writers and writings can be used to consider it. We start from the assumption that approaching non-elite writing through the prism of work is a key approach to elucidating key economic and ideological forces in early modern writing.
Topics we will consider in papers and discussion include:
- Early modern and modern ideas about ‘work’ and how we might think about that and the relationship between the two categories of writing and work
- Where we find writing on work and how far such writing is about work
- The sources we use to consider ‘work writing’; how far these can be changed or deepened – and what different resources tell us about gender, space, location and association
- Who writes about work, who is written about and why
- The genres which disclose work – what should we count as a text that ‘writes work’
- Relationships between gender and work
Programme
0930 tea/coffee
10.00–11.15 Panel 1: Genres and modes of non-elite writing
- Sue Wiseman (Birkbeck, University of London): Would they have preferred not to? Leisure and Labour in Non-Elite writing
- Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin (Cardiff University): Artisanal work and authorship at the early modern Tower Mint
11.15–11.35 Break
11.35–12.50 Panel 2: Concepts of work and concepts of writing
- Robert Stearn (Birkbeck, University of London): Writing work: Forms and methodologies
- Hillary Taylor (University of Cambridge): Who “wrote” about work in 17th-Century England, if most workers could not write?
12.50–1.50 Lunch
1.50–3.05 Panel 3: Representing labour
- Brodie Waddell (Birkbeck, University of London): Work on the page: Labour and occupation in autobiographical writing and petitions
3.05–3.25 Break
3.25–4.40 Panel 4: Gender and work: a manifesto?
- Sara Pennell (University of Greenwich): A manifesto for working women? Hannah Wolley’s A Guide to Ladies, Gentlewomen and Maids (1668)
- Jane Whittle (University of Exeter): Gender and the nature of early modern work: Definitions and motivations
4.40–5.00 Break
5.00–c. 5.30 Roundtable
This event is jointly organised by the London Renaissance Seminar and the Written Worlds project.
Finding non-elite Londoners: writers, workers, wanderers
When: 24 June 2022, 14:00 — 20:00
Venue: Birkbeck, University of London, 43 Gordon Square
We addressed how to find the non-elite in London’s archives. Papers explored non-elite writers, but also traders, women immigrants and shipworkers – and how to find them. Our main focus was on the period 1550-1720 and we welcomed thoughts, tips and questions on how to find and think about these people and the records they left. This was an afternoon colloquium with six papers and discussion. It was jointly organised by the London Renaissance Seminar and the Written Worlds project.
2.00-3.30pm Panel 1: guilds, women, work
- 2.00pm Tracey Hill, ‘ “Fawcon outragious”: livery company lives in early modern London’
- 2.20pm Laura Gowing, ‘Finding women at work in London’s records’
- 2.40pm Vanessa Harding, ‘Parallel Londoners: Richard Smyth and Nehemiah Wallington’
- 3.00pm Discussion
3.45-5.00pm Panel 2: chronicles, migrants, seafarers
- 3.45pm-4.00pm Sarah Kent, ‘“Popular” History in London: Reconstructing Londoners interest in the history of the city, 1580-1640’
- 4.00-4.15pm Daniel Rafiqi, ‘Empowering Narratives: Huguenot Refugees’ Autobiographical Writings and Broader Processes of Coping’
- 4.15-4.30pm Michael Powell-Davies, ‘The Literate Lives of the Middling Sort in Early Modern Maritime London’
- 4.30-5.00pm Discussion
Written Worlds 