Robin Hood: Past and Present, Local and Global
The Second International Conference of Robin Hood Studies
Nottingham, 14th - 18th July, 1999
PROGRAMME
Wednesday, 14th July
10.30 a.m. onwards Registration at Nightingale Hall
Coffee and sandwiches before departure for Sherwood and Southwell
1.00 p.m. Buses leave Nightingale Hall for visit to Sherwood Forest and Southwell Minster
The programme has been arranged by Michael Eaton and Nic Broomhead, Assistant Tourism Officer for Nottinghamshire County Council. There will be a Sherwood Forest tour, including Edwinstowe Church (where Marion and Robin married) and talks by local historians who have made a special study of the history of Sherwood, including a medieval forest warden, who will take us around Sherwood as it was in Robin's Day, and Dr Robert Laxton, of the University of Nottingham, a dendrenologist, who will talk about what timbers from local medieval buildings can tell us about medieval Sherwood and about the politics and economics of Royal Forests. There will be a guided tour of Southwell Minster, with special attention to the Chapter House carvings (among them the 'Green Man').
Reception at the Saracen's Head, a fourteenth-century inn in Southwell, hosted by Nottinghamshire County Council.
Supper will be at the Saracen's Head (cost not included but moderate).
Return to Nightingale Hall
(Bed and Breakfast at Nightingale Hall).
Thursday, 15th July
Breakfast, Nightingale Hall.
9-10.00 a.m. Session 1
Derek Pearsall (Harvard University): 'The Ballad of Robin Hood and the Monk'.
John Scattergood (Trinity College, Dublin): 'Outlaws and Parody'.
10.00 a.m. coffee.
10.30 a.m. Buses leave Nightingale Hall for Nottingham Castle and City Centre
Visit to Nottingham Castle with Graham Black (Nottingham Trent University). Walk through the city, opportunity to see St Mary's Church and other places associated with Robin Hood.
We will have lunch (cost not included) at pubs or cafes, etc., guided by committee members or trusty citizens.
2.30 p.m. Nottingham Trent University
Conference delegates will be welcomed to Nottingham by the Sheriff of Nottingham
Plenary Lecture I
Jeffrey Richards
Professor of Cultural History, Lancaster University:
'The Television Robin Hood'
Followed by refreshments and the official opening of the exhibition by Kevin Carpenter and David Blamires:
Hurrah for Robin Hood: Robin Hood in Children's Books and Magazines, 1810 - Present Day
Buses return to Nightingale Hall
7.15 p.m. Dinner at Nightingale Hall
After dinner: Session 2 - A symposium 'Robin Hood and Folk-Lore',
chaired by Alan Gaylord (Dartmouth Collage). Speakers include Bella Millet (Southampton University) and Seth Kunin (University of Nottingham).
(Bed and Breakfast at Nightingale Hall)
Friday, 16th July
Breakfast at Nightingale Hall.
9 - 10.30 a.m. Session 3
John Marshall (University of Bristol): '"Comyth in Robyn Hode": Money Gathering at Croscombe, Somerset in the Name of the Outlaw'.
Thomas H. Ohlgren (Purdue University): 'Norfolk, the Pastons and Richard Call: the Manuscript Context of "Robin Hood and the Potter"'.
Richard Clouet (Institut Catholique d'Etudes Supérieures): 'Robin Hood: The Legitimate Outlaw of the Middle Ages'.
Session 4
Kevin Carpenter (Oldenburg University): 'Robin Hood in Boys' Weeklies, 1868 - 1920'.
Kevin Harty (La Salle University): 'Homosociality and the Death of the Robin Hood Legend on Screen'.
Bonnie Millar (University of Nottingham): 'Reading the Male: Feminisation and Hypermasculinisation in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'.
10.30 a.m. coffee
11.00 a.m. -12.30 p.m. Session 5
Richard Firth Green (University of Western Ontario): 'Violence in the Outlaw Tradition'.
Timothy S. Jones (Augustana College): 'English Law and the Structure of Medieval English Outlaw Narratives'.
Christine Chism (Rutgers University): 'Robin Hood: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally in the Fifteenth-Century Ballads'.
Session 6
Linda Troost (Washington and Jefferson College): 'Thomas Holcroft's The Noble Peasant (1784): An Overlooked Reworking of an Outlaw Tale'.
Clare Blatchley (Southern Connecticut University): 'Locating the Power of the Greenwood in the Early Ballads and the Gest'.
Helen Phillips (University of Glamorgan): 'Charlotte Bronte, Robin Hood and the Industrial Revolution'.
1.00 p.m. lunch, Nightingale Hall.
2-3.30 p.m. Session 7
Roy Pearcy (University of Oklahoma): 'The Literary Robin Hood: Character and Function in Fits 1,2, and 4 of the Geste'.
David Hepworth (University of Nottingham): 'A Grave's Tale'
Dean Hoffman (Belmont Abbey College): '"Lythe and Lysten, gentylmen, / And herken to your songe": Guildhall Minstrelsy as Text and Subtext in the Gest of Robyn Hode'.
Session 8
Roberta Staples (Sacred Heart University): 'Maid Marian: Oh, What a Change is Here!'
Lorraine Stock (University of Houston): 'The Women in Robin Hood's Life: Ambivalent Constructions of the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalen, and Maid Marian'.
Anna Macbriar (University of Southern Mississippi): 'Robin and Robin Hood: Co-signs across National and Linguistic Boundaries'.
3.30 p.m. Tea
4-5.00 p.m. Session 9
Julian Wasserman and Marcus Smith (Loyola University): '"Sketches by a Green Crayon": Washington Irving, Robin Hood and the Emerging American Frontier'.
Stephen Knight (Cardiff University): 'The Forest Queen'.
6.00 p.m. Dinner at Nightingale Hall
7.00 p.m. Buses to Broadway Cinema, Nottingham.
Reception and Film.
Saturday,17th July.
Breakfast at Nightingale Hall
9-10.30 a.m. Session 10
Sally Bentley (Bishop Grosseteste College): 'Is Robin Hood Children's Literature?'
David Blamires (University of Manchester): 'Social Change and the Figure of Marian in Twentieth-Century Children's Books'.
Evelyn Perry: 'The Past as Present: Robin Hood and the Formative Reader'.
Session 11
Allen Wright: 'Begone, Knave! Robbery is out of Fashion Hereabouts!'
Laura Blunk (Cuyahoga Community College): '"And For Best Supporting Hero, Little John": an Analysis of the Portrayal of Little John in Robin Hood Films and Television'.
Sherron Lux: 'Maids and Matrons: The Women of Richard Carpenter's Robin of Sherwood Series'.
10.30 a.m. Coffee
Plenary Lecture 2
Thomas Hahn
Professor of English, University of Rochester
'Loved by the Good: Robin Hood in the 50's'
12-2 Lunch.
2 - 3.30 p.m. Session 12
Hillary Herndon (University of Rochester): 'The Outlaw King: An Operetta'.
Alan Gaylord (Dartmouth College): 'The Grimness of the Green -- Cautionary Images from Russell Hoban'.
Lois Potter (University of Delaware), 'Alfred Noyes's Sherwood'.
3.30 p.m. Tea
4.00 p.m. Session 13
David Smith (Lancaster University): `South-East Asian Bandits'.
Adrian Price (University of Glamorgan): 'Welsh Bandits'.
David Marcombe (University of Nottingham): 'Robin Hood: Heretic in a Green Suit?'
Reception
7.00 p.m. Conference Banquet with entertainments.
Sunday, 18th July
Breakfast at Nightingale Hall
9 - 10.00 a.m. Session 14 - 'Robin Hood and Place-Names',
chaired by Helen Phillips (University of Glamorgan).
Gordon Stainforth: 'Robin Hood and the Peak District'.
Michael Evans (Christchurch University College, Canterbury): 'Robin Hood in Sherwood Stood? - Robin Hood and Regional Identity'.
10.00 a.m. Coffee
10.30 a.m. All-day trip to Robin Hood places in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, devised and hosted by Stephen Knight.
Conference ends.
This conference has been organised with the help of the University of Glamorgan and Nottingham Trent University.