Call for Articles

Step by Step: Visualizing and Asserting Power in Early Modern Joyous Entries and Festivities in the Netherlands, 1500–1750

To celebrate the 385th anniversary of the Joyous Entry of Cardinal-Infant Ferdinand of Spain into Antwerp in 1635, which had been largely designed by Peter Paul Rubens, a conference was organized to present and discuss the current research on these lavish festivities held in the early modern Netherlands. Postponed due to the Covid19-pandemic the event took place virtually in December 2020 hosted by the Rubenianum in Antwerp (https://www.rubenianum.be/en/activity/step-step). Focusing on these ephemeral, spectacular, and artistically ingenious events that shaped and transformed the cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent or The Hague, the presented papers highlighted in many different ways how power was asserted and negotiated between the ruler and the ruled during such entries. Additional focus was given to the theme of interdisciplinarity in the organization and execution of these events as well as in the modern scholarship needed to gain a deeper understanding of the multifaceted entities that those festivities constituted.

The organizers of the conference aim at publishing the papers held at the conference and would like to invite submissions for further essays for the edited volume. The large audience emphasized that these early modern spectacles are of great interest for current research in the fields of historiography, art history, musicology, theatre studies, or research on literature, among others. Therefore, we would like to invite additional contributors for this volume which wants to bring together current research on early modern Joyous Entries of the Netherlands (1500–1750) from different areas of study. Additionally, we would like to encourage the submission of abstracts that focus on other festivities in the Low Countries that are connected to the Joyous Entry tradition, among them burial processions, religious processions (i. e. ommegangen), weddings, or stately entries of foreign dignitaries. Essays could deal with single festivities, or even single ephemeral structures, comparative analyses, or utilize a distinctive interdisciplinary approach.

Please submit your abstract that includes a title for your essay and has a maximum length of 500 words as well as your CV no later than June 1, 2021 to Sabrina Lind (sabrina.lindUGent.be) and Ivo Raband (ivo.rabanduni-hamburg.de) via email. The language of the publication will be English. We will respond within a month and inform you if your essay has been accepted for the volume. Finalized essays will be due April 30, 2022. We especially encourage submissions by researchers at PhD and Postdoc level. Please note that the editors will not be able to contribute to any costs (e. g. image fees) and that we ask you to find external funding if necessary. We also plan to have a workshop with the contributors of the volume at the Rubenianum in Antwerp in the early summer of 2022 to discuss the essays before their final editing. The manuscript will then be submitted for review to the European Festival Studies 1450–1700 Series at Brepols publishers (General Editors Margaret Shewring, Marie-Claude Canova-Green, and Margaret M. McGowan).

Timetable:

Submission Deadline for Abstracts: 01.06.2021
Response by the Editors Regarding the Acceptance of Abstracts: 30.06.2021
Submission Deadline for Essays: 30.04.2022
Possible Workshop with the Authors: May/June 2022 (dates tbc)
Submission of the Finalized Essays: August 2022 (dates tbc)
Submission of the Manuscript: September/October 2022 (dates tbc)