Playing with Transgression:
Cultural Transformations of Robin Hood
at
The University of Rochester
16-18 October 1997
Thursday 16 October 1997
1:30pm Film: Fellow Traveller (1989)
Award-winning film about American Jewish actors and writers who were blacklisted in the McCarthy era. One flees to England and creates the popular Robin Hood television series, through which he subverts totalitarian practices. Starring Ron Silver and Imogen Stubbs. Directed by Philip Saville. Screenplay by Michael Eaton.
3:30pm Contemporary Reworkings
Patricia L. Yongue (Houston), moderator
David Lampe (Buffalo State College)
"Pattern and Parody in Modern and Post-Modern Robin Hood Plots"
Laura Blunk (Cuyahoga Community College)
"Recreating the Legend: Richard Carpenter's Robin of Sherwood"
Sarah Beach (Los Angeles, CA)
"Robin Hood and Green Arrow: Outlaw Bowmen in the Modern Urban Landscape"
6:30pm Dinner at local restaurant
8:00pm Robin Hood in Music
Virginia Newes and Ralph Locke (Musicology, Eastman School), moderators
This concert performed by Eastman School of Music students will feature works on Robin Hood and other outlaw themes. The tentative program includes the medieval pastourelle Robin et Marion (Adam de la Halle); Robin Hood madrigal, ayres and rounds; broadside ballads; and excerpts from operas and operettas, notably Auber's Fra Diavolo (about an Italian highwayman), Verdi's I masnadieri (after Schiller's Die Räuber), and Reginald de Koven's (once) much-loved Robin Hood operetta (1890). A special attraction will be excerpts from Castil-Blaze's Robin des bois, a work of the 1820s that set the music of Weber's Der Freischütz to an entirely new text.
Friday 17 October 1997
9:00am Historical Interpretations
Fred Donnelly (New Brunswick), moderator
Bernard Lumpkin (Harvard)
"The Law of the Outlaw: Value and Resistance in the Robin Hood Ballads"
Thomas Ohlgren (Purdue)
"The Merchant of Sherwood: Mercantile Ideology in the Early Ballads"
Helen Phillips (Nottingham)
"Outlaws and Forests, Places and Plots: The Role of Names in the Robin Hood Texts"
Kelly DeVries (Loyola, Baltimore)
"Longbow Archery and the Robin Hood Legends"
10:30am Coffee
11:00am Plenary Address
R. B. Dobson (Cambridge)
"Robin Hood: The Genesis of a Popular Hero"
12:30pm Lunch
2:00pm Spectacle and Performance
Russell Peck (Rochester), moderator
Stuart Kane (Rochester)
"Horseplay: Robin Hood, Guy of Gisborne and the Imprint of Bestiality"
Evelyn M. Perry (Rhode Island)
"And Marian Was Strang'ly Attired: Dressing Up Heroism in the Legend of Robin Hood"
Lorraine K. Stock (Houston)
"Lords of the Wildwood: The Wild Man, The Green Man, and Robin Hood"
3:30pm Refreshments
4:00pm Literary Traditions
Thomas Hahn (Rochester), moderator
Nicholas Roe (St. Andrews)
"Robin Hood and the Road Protestors"
Lois Potter (Delaware)
"Sherwood Forest and the Byronic Robin Hood"
Linda V. Troost (Washington and Jefferson)
"Robin Hood and the Eighteenth-Century London Stage"
Julian Wasserman and Marcus A. J. Smith (Loyola, New Orleans)
"In the Sheriff's Court: Robin Hood and American Jurisprudence"
6:30pm Dinner with entertainment Robin Hood and the Friar.
The earliest extant Robin Hood play (c. 1560) written and performed in May games, about twenty minutes long. Here Robin meets his match in Friar Tuck, who gives him a dunking and gets in return gold and "a lady free."
8:00pm Robin Hood: An International Exhibition
Kevin Carpenter (Oldenburg), curator of the exhibition
Introduction the only North American installation of this display of art, books, and artifacts taking Robin Hood as their theme. Copies of the catalogue raisonné (which also contains new essays on Robin Hood) will be available.
9:00pm James Kimball (School of Performing Arts, SUNY Geneseo)
A lecture and performance on Robin Hood ballads in America.
Saturday 18 October 1997
9:00am Robin Hood on Film
Alan Gaylord (Dartmouth), moderator
Kevin Harty (La Salle)
"Swashbuckling Cinema Plain and Simple: Robin Hood on the Screen"
Sarah Sammis (UCLA)
"Anti-Nazi Propaganda in The Adventures of Robin Hood"
Sherron Lux (Tennessee)
"... And the 'Reel' Maid Marian"
10:30am Coffee
11:00am Plenary Address
Stephen Knight (Cardiff)
"Which Way to the Forest?: Directions in Robin Hood Studies"
12:30pm Lunch
2:00pm Stage and Screen
Mervyn Willis (Theater Program, Rochester), moderator
Michael Eaton (Nottingham)
Gary Yershon (London)
Ross Petty (Toronto)
Discussion of Eaton's award-winning film, Fellow Traveller, and his short film, Moving Pictures (on the history of Robin Hood on film), and the history, staging, and reception of the recent Robin Hood pantomimes by Yershon (in Britain) and Petty (in Toronto).
5:00pm Closing Remarks
6:30pm Dinner at local restaurants
8:00pm Film: Robin Hood (1922, silent; Douglas Fairbanks Sr.)
Throughout the event, conferees will have the chance to revisit the Exhibition, and to attend screenings of Fellow Traveller, Moving Pictures, videotapes of the recent pantomimes by Gary Yershon and Ross Petty, and other film versions. These will be shown during the days and in the evenings at a variety of locations on campus.
Hotel rooms:
Days Inn 384 East Ave. (585) 325-5010
single $50/double $55
Mention the Robin Hood conference to get the special rate.
A free shuttle bus will be available between the hotel and conference events. Events will be held at the University of Rochester campus.
For more information about the conference or accommodations, please write:
Robin Hood Conference
Department of English
University of Rochester
Rochester, New York 14627
(e-mail: jrch@db1.cc.rochester.edu)
(585) 275-4092
Conference fees
Registration fee $50
Special registration fee for graduate students $10
Lunch on Friday $5
Dinner on Friday $10
Lunch on Saturday $5
Make checks payable to the University of Rochester.
Send conference fees to:
Robin Hood Conference
Department of English
University of Rochester
Rochester, New York 14627
Please include a list of what fee category and meals you are paying for.