This Special Issue emerges from an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded network, Memory and Community in Early Modern Britain, which investigated two related topics: the memory cultures of early modern Britain and the question of how that period is remembered today. The network ran for two years, from 2013 to 2015. In a series of events hosted by each of the four institutions involved (
This essay pursues the study of early modern memory across a chronologically, conceptually and thematically broad canvas in order to address key questions about the historicity of memory and the methodologies of memory studies. First, what is the value for our understanding of early modern memory practices of transporting the methodologies of contemporary memory studies backwards, using them to study the memorial culture of a time before living memory? Second, what happens to the cross-disciplinary project of memory studies when it is taken to a distant period, one that had its own highly self-conscious and much debated cultures of remembering? Drawing on evidence and debates from a range of disciplinary locations, but primarily focusing on literary and historical studies, the essay interrogates crucial differences and commonalities between memory studies and early modern studies.
<p>Since the rediscovery of Elizabeth Cary’s drama, <em>The Tragedy of Mariam</em>, the play and its author have generated a veritable critical industry. Yet little has been written about performance, a lacuna explained by a reluctance to think about <em>Mariam</em> as a theatrical creation. This article challenges the current consensus by arguing for the play’s theatrical imprint and by analysing two 2013 performances – a site-specific production at Cary’s birthplace, and a production by the Lazarus Theatre Company. Throughout, <em>Mariam</em> is engaged with in terms of casting, costume, lighting, set and movement, issues that have mostly been bypassed in Cary studies.</p>
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