Penniless? Thomas Nashe and precarity in historical perspective
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: English
Abstract
Thomas Nashe (1567-c.1601) is a challenging writer because of (1) the intense topicality and allusiveness of his works, which ground his writings in - and assume knowledge of - the material and socio-political contexts of his Elizabethan world; (2) his simultaneous tendency towards the grotesque, whereby he exaggerates and distorts the world he describes; and (3) his syntactical complexity.
Using Nashe's Pierce Penniless (1592) as a focus text, the project will work with freelancers in the creative industries to produce nine pen-and-ink drawings, a zine, a devised performance, a video, and a series of six podcasts which will interpret Nashe's writings for non-specialist audiences and draw out his relevance to twenty-first-century experiences of precarious employment (here defined as unemployment, insecure employment, and employment in a job below one's skill-set). The project will also collect and curate oral testimonies about the employment experiences of young people and mature students in the twenty-first century.
These visual and audio resources will be used to prompt discussions - amongst careers service professionals, educators, employers, young people and mature students facing a challenging employment environment, and their families and friends - about the experience of precarious employment, at both structured events (including a webinar hosted by the English Association) and beyond (via the subsequent life of these resources on-line). These resources will also highlight the dramatic techniques and potential of Nashe's 'non-dramatic' works, his innovative use of different forms and technologies (e.g. print), the importance of utilising networks, and Nashe's concern with the potential ephemerality of his art.
In addition, via blogposts and an on-line round-table talk, the project will reflect on the process of collaborating with non-specialists to interpret and disseminate the works of a 'difficult' writer.
Using Nashe's Pierce Penniless (1592) as a focus text, the project will work with freelancers in the creative industries to produce nine pen-and-ink drawings, a zine, a devised performance, a video, and a series of six podcasts which will interpret Nashe's writings for non-specialist audiences and draw out his relevance to twenty-first-century experiences of precarious employment (here defined as unemployment, insecure employment, and employment in a job below one's skill-set). The project will also collect and curate oral testimonies about the employment experiences of young people and mature students in the twenty-first century.
These visual and audio resources will be used to prompt discussions - amongst careers service professionals, educators, employers, young people and mature students facing a challenging employment environment, and their families and friends - about the experience of precarious employment, at both structured events (including a webinar hosted by the English Association) and beyond (via the subsequent life of these resources on-line). These resources will also highlight the dramatic techniques and potential of Nashe's 'non-dramatic' works, his innovative use of different forms and technologies (e.g. print), the importance of utilising networks, and Nashe's concern with the potential ephemerality of his art.
In addition, via blogposts and an on-line round-table talk, the project will reflect on the process of collaborating with non-specialists to interpret and disseminate the works of a 'difficult' writer.
| Title | Penniless? Artwork responding to Thomas Nashe's Pierce Penniless (1592) |
| Description | An exhibition of Jessica Heywood's work, responding to Pierce Penniless, was held at the University of Sheffield in February 2023. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | The artist raised her profile; made a modest amount from selling merchandise (badges, prints, original work) created during the project and attracted a number of commissions. |
| Title | Penniless? Artwork responding to Thomas Nashe's Pierce Penniless (1592) |
| Description | The artist Jessica Heywood created nine pen-and-ink drawings responding to the parade of the seven deadly sins in Nashe's Pierce Penniless: seven depicted the individual sins; one served as a 'cover' image, bringing together elements from the images of the sins; a final one recreated the woodcut of Nashe in chains. These images featured in an exhibition at the University of Sheffield (February 2023). Alongside the original artwork, bookmarks, and badges, this exhibition featured a digital display of the work, which is now hosted on the Penniless? project website. The nine images were also made into a 'zine', a short-form publication that is evocative of Nashe's concern with the potential ephemerality of writing. To further convey the vulnerability of the page, Jessica printed them on different qualities of paper, including tracing paper. That latter form evoked both the way in which ink can bleed through cheaper 16th-century paper and the claustrophobic density of which Nashe's prose is capable. Copies of the zine will be deposited in the digital zine collection curated by the Baltic Gallery, Gateshead, and (in physical form) in Special Collections, at the University of Sheffield. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The images were used as prompts for discussions with the theatre company Cap-a-Pie (October 2022). Jessica Heywood has also drawn on the project and its methods in her own teaching at a workshop with older teenagers (January 2023). |
| URL | https://research.ncl.ac.uk/thethomasnasheproject/pennilessproject/artwork/ |
| Title | Propa Penniless |
| Description | Utilising a modernised, annotated extracts from Pierce Penniless and collecting oral testimonials from the actors involved Cap-a-Pie devised a performance piece, 'Propa Penniless'. This was performed in front of an invited audience (comprising academics, students, people working in the third sector). The performance was preceded by an introduction to both Thomas Nashe and the work Pierce Penniless (delivered by the PI) and was followed by a Q&A, featuring the PI, Co-I, PDRA, director, actors, and the artist Jessica Heywood, whose zines were also distributed to the audience. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Audience feedback was highly positive: the performance was moving, funny, and powerful, and the contemporary resonances of Pierce Penniless came through strongly. A blog about the performance can be found here: https://medium.com/@a.cornish/propa-penniless-a-performance-by-cap-a-pie-7d3cbda40cee. There is also a video about this aspect of the project (URL below). |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntc3lYN_YEc |
| Description | 1) The project collaborated with the artist Jessica Heywood to create a zine and digital exhibition of work responding to Thomas Nashe's Pierce Penniless (1592). The digital exhibition can be viewed here: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/thethomasnasheproject/pennilessproject/artwork/. Copies of the zine will be deposited in the Baltic Gallery, Gateshead and Special Collections, University of Sheffield. There was also an exhibition of the work at the University of Sheffield in February 2023. Jessica Heywood has also used the Nashe material in a workshop for art students in the local region. 2) Working with student interns, we collected oral testimonials from 18-to-24-year olds and mature students about their experiences and perceptions of employment. The testimonials can be found here: https://witness.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/in-their-own-words-project 3) We collaborated with the Theatre Company Cap-a-Pie, who used modernised, annotated extracts from Pierce Penniless and the process of oral testimony we'd used in (2) to create a 21st-century response to Pierce Penniless. A video about that aspect of the project can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntc3lYN_YEc 4) Working with Better Lemon Creative Audio to create a series of 6 podcasts about 'The Precarious World of Thomas Nashe', which can be found here: https://precariousworld.podbean.com/. Launched in February 2023, we have had c. 450 downloads to date, and currently have a 5* rating on Apple Podcasts. 5) Collaborated with the English Association to put on a webinar on Careers for English Graduates (13 Feb 2023). This was attended by c. 150 people, ranging from academics and careers advisors to school teachers and students. A recording of the webinar and accompanying resources curated by the project team and contributing alumni can be accessed here: https://englishassociation.ac.uk/nashe/. On the back of this event, the PI and Co-I have been asked (i) to co-edit a special issue on 'Precarity' for the journal /English/; (ii) the PI has been asked to join a working group (#WorkingTogether) bringing together subject associations (University English, English Association) to address misconceptions about the employability of English students; (iii) the PI and Co-I have been asked to run a workshop on employability and studying English for the annual meeting of the National Association of Teachers of English in July 2023. 6) Blogposts reflecting on the project's activities can be found here: https://medium.com/@a.cornish. Four podcasts have been published to date; a further two are imminent. 7) The project team (PI, Co-I, PDRA) are delivering an on-line seminar about the project, hosted by the Society of Renaissance Studies, on 28 March 2023. Originally due to be held in February, this was rescheduled due to Industrial Action. |
| Exploitation Route | Thomas Nashe, the focus of the project, is a 'difficult' writer in a number of ways: his sentences are complex; the topical and quotidian things he refers to - whilst familiar to his original audiences - are frequently obscure to 21st-century audiences; and his works are often misogynistic, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic. The project worked with creative practitioners and student interns to explore ways of interpreting and disseminating the work of this challenging author, who is little-known and rarely read beyond academia. In the process, we learned that - with an explanatory framework - his works did speak to and have relevance for contemporary, non-academic audiences, and that the uncomfortable parts of his oeuvre are best met head-on, rather than pushed under the carpet. As such, the project provides a useful case-study for other academics dealing with similarly challenging material. The entrepreneurialism of Nashe's generation, and their varied, portfolio careers when faced with a precarious and often hostile employment landscape also provide a model for thinking about careers for Humanities students in the 21st-century. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://research.ncl.ac.uk/thethomasnasheproject/pennilessproject/ |
| Description | * Findings have been published in the podcasts: since being published in early February 2023, they have been downloaded almost 450 times; currently hold a 5* review on Apple Podcasts; academic listeners have contacted us to say that they intend including them in recommending reading; and school teachers have said that they will be recommending them to A-Level students; feedback from non-academic listeners is also very positive. We anticipate that the number of downloads will increase substantially in the next academic year, once reading lists are published. * Findings have underpinned the performance devised by Cap-a-Pie and artwork created by Jessica Heywood. * Webinar in collaboration with English Association has prompted invitations for further activities about employability and studying English. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | 'In their own words: Work in the 21st Century' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Having received accredited Oral History Society training, four undergraduate student interns worked with the PI and PDRA to collect oral testimonies from 18-to-24-year olds about their experiences and perceptions of the employment. They were responsible for recruiting interviewees, for ensuring that the necessary permissions (pre- and post-interview) were collected and stored appropriately; for conducting interviews; and writing summaries. The interviews inspired one of the approaches taken by Cap-a-Pie when devising their performance (where extracts from Nashe's Pierce Penniless were juxtaposed with testimonials of the actors' own employment experiences), and the training and research process has equipped the students with a skill that they can use in their future studies (two of them have reported that they are currently using oral history methods in their final-year studies as a result of the project). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://witness.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/in-their-own-words-project |
| Description | 'My Useful English Degree: Careers for English Graduates' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Featuring careers specialists and English graduates, the webinar explored how today's graduates can build a career in a much wider range of sectors than they might first think. Over three sessions, it heard from careers specialists about the concept of a career in the 21st century, and why an English degree is good preparation for the world of work; from former students who have gone onto careers (in the arts, media, publishing) which many people want to pursue, but which are often difficult to enter; and from students who have thrived in more unusual occupations for humanities graduates such as finance and computer engineering. Ultimately, the webinar demonstrated why English graduates make great entrepreneurs, and why their skills of analysis, digital literacy, and independence of thought make them attractive to so many different employers. Work on the webinar also produced some additional resources (e.g. Q&As with alumni; advice sheets on particular careers), also published on the English Association website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://englishassociation.ac.uk/nashe/ |
| Description | Penniless? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The blogposts reflect on the project's activities and outputs. Four posts have been published to date; a further two will be published in late March and April 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://medium.com/@a.cornish |
| Description | The Precarious World of Thomas Nashe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Featuring specialists on sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century history, literature, culture, this podcast series explores the precarious world of Thomas Nashe and his contemporaries. Over six thirty-minute episodes, it looks at * sixteenth-century education: how it prepared its pupils for the world of work; the kind of careers they were offered; and what actually happened when they left university in the 1580s and 90s; * freelance writing: writing for patrons, writing for the stage, writing for the printing press * places and spaces in Elizabethan London: playhouses, printing shops, and the precarious rental market * experimental forms, and how Nashe's satirical style was shaped by Puritan polemic and by a tension between popular and elite forms * writing in a time of plague: what happened when plague closed down the playhouses, a major source of income for freelance writers like Nashe? * the supernatural world: Elizabethan beliefs about ghosts and the afterlife, and 'gothic' forms of writing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://precariousworld.podbean.com/ |