The International Christopher Marlowe

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At the heart of this fellowship proposal is an ambitious desire to reconceive the Elizabethan poet and dramatist Christopher Marlowe as an 'international' or European political thinker, as opposed to an English writer responding largely to domestic contexts and to polemic over theory. Accordingly, the fellowship supports a programme of research that places Marlowe's work in the context of innovations and changes in European political thought, principally as received in England, from ca. 1572 to Marlowe's death in 1593 (see 'Case for Support' for further details). Driving the planned research is a methodology grounded in book history and reception studies, as well as the interpretation of political texts, which has the capacity to reinvigorate current scholarship on Marlowe and challenge aspects of the way early modern drama has been linked to political ideas. In a timely way the project will emphasise the European dimension to a seminal figure in narratives of 'our', that is English, national literature. A 6 month period ending December 2013 and including research leave granted by the University of Exeter will lay the platform for the programme of research covered by the fellowship; it includes a proposal for a research monograph (including 2 draft chapters) to an established academic publisher, probably Oxford University Press. In its first phase, the fellowship will support a 1-year programme of full-time research, culminating in the remaining chapters of a monograph tracing the English reception of European political thought over a roughly twenty year period to 1593 and placing Marlowe's work in the context of this material. A second, part-time phase of six months (until September 2015) will be devoted to dissemination, impact and leadership-related activities. These include a two-day conference on 'The International Marlowe' at the University of Exeter and a seminar tour of European universities and/or academic organisations. They also incorporate, on the impact side, a number of workshops run by a professional drama company, 'Splendid Productions', for schools in the Devon region, which will creatively explore the interaction between Marlowe's drama and political ideas. Video footage of some of these workshops will be uploaded to a website publicising the project, which will include pages devoted to the conference, to political thought in the age of Marlowe, and include five edited scenes from Marlowe's plays illuminating the thinking behind the fellowship. At the start of the fellowship, a research assistant will be appointed to help co-ordinate the impact and dissemination programme. The proposed array of research, dissemination and leadership actitivies will further my career development from a promising early career scholar, appointed to my first research post in early 2011 and with a recently published first monograph (War Liberty and Caesar: Oxford, 2013). It will also further my research interests in the complex intersections between political ideas and imaginative or mimetic literature; in reception; and in the literary and intellectual links between early modern England and abroad, with the aim of devising substantial funded and collaborative projects in the future.