Special issue call for papers: Ecocritical Marlowe
Dr Chloe Preedy (Exeter) invites submissions on the subject of Ecocritical Marlowe for a special edition of The Journal of Marlowe Studies, an international, peer-reviewed online journal.
Early modern England experienced significant environmental change. Urban expansion, an increase in agricultural practices such as enclosure, and speculative drainage schemes disrupted existing ecologies and altered human relationships with the landscape and the natural resources they took from it. At the same time, large-scale climatic cooling continued to influence weather conditions across Europe and beyond, with England suffering a period of sustained wet weather during the 1590s that led to harvest failure and food shortages. The resulting impact on early modern authors and their literary and dramatic communication of environmental themes and issues has increasingly attracted the attention of modern scholars. However, the ecocritical potential and interest of Christopher Marlowe’s plays and poems has yet to be fully addressed.
This special issue will illuminate the ecocritical significance of Marlowe’s writings: from instances in which they engage with historical changes to the environment or its representation, to their potential to speak to present-day experiences of climate change and global warming.
Contributions from researchers, educators, and creative practitioners with experience of working with Marlowe’s texts are welcome. Contributions can be article-length pieces (7-8,000 words) on ecocritical themes or issues in Marlowe’s plays or poems, or shorter pieces detailing methods or practices that could support an ecocritical approach to teaching or producing Marlowe’s work(s).
Contributions might consider or focus on:
- Animal allusions or presences in Marlowe’s works
- Marlowe’s landscapes (pastoral or otherwise)
- References to agricultural or extractive industries in Marlowe’s writings
- Marlowe and environmental justice
- Floral/arboreal imagery and/or properties in Marlowe’s works
- Marlowe’s seas and/or rivers
- Eco-consciousness and/or anthropocentrism in Marlowe’s texts
- Weather’s presence and/or influence in Marlowe’s plays or poems
- Animal cruelty, resource extraction, and/or recycling in Marlowe’s theatre
Deadline for submissions: 2 May 2025.
All contributions will be subject to double-blind peer review.
If you have any questions about the edition or ideas for a potential submission, please email C.Preedy@exeter.ac.uk. Please also consult the journal’s author page before submission; we recommend that you review the About the Journal page and the Author Guidelines.
