The International Christopher Marlowe

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.

The fellowship's programme of impact activities is centred around a series of drama workshops in local Devon schools, devised jointly by myself and a professional production company, 'Splendid Productions', together with a separate workshop for PGCE trainee drama teachers at the University of Exeter. The workshops themselves will be run by Splendid Productions. Subject to necessary permissions, video footage of the workshops, managed by a student team from the University of Exeter, will be edited and uploaded to a project website. The latter constitutes a more diffuse instrument for impact aimed at both academic and non-academic forums: it will include information on the project and pages on political thought in early modern Europe and in Marlowe's plays and links to other sites of interest besides the workshops.

Drama and English school pupils (pre- and post-GCSE) constitute a public whose skills, knowledge and understanding can be both enhanced and transformed by the project's impact programme. By offering a workshop also to English teachers the potential spread of the project's ideas and questions will be considerably magnified.

The exact format of the drama workshops will be worked out as the first phase of the fellowship progresses (see 'Pathways to Impact' for further details). They will, however, be based on scenes in Christopher Marlowe's plays identified by myself and 'Splendid Productions' and will allow scope for either interpretive performance or individual creative responses. Their aim is not simply to communicate knowledge, but to encourage students to ask questions about the relationship between political ideas and theatre, both in Marlowe's time and ours, as well as to enhance awareness of the international or European nature of 'English' literary culture, especially drama, in the early modern period. These aims complement the objectives behind the project as a whole, while allowing students to develop their own ideas and interpretations in a performance-oriented setting. As well as addressing the QAA subject specifications for both English and Drama (again, see 'Pathways to Impact for more detail), students will be empowered to see early modern drama texts in a new, more contextually informed light.

The uploading of selected performance outputs onto the website will not only document the public engagement activities undertaken during the fellowship but act as a stimulus for future collaborative work in this area.

'Splendid Productions' is a drama company with a strong track record in devising workshops for the young. Its focus on the dynamics of political theatre, and on engaging participants by getting them to ask questions, is in the spirit of Marlowe's own work and also forms a natural link with the interrogatory thrust of the project.

Interest in the workshops has already been expressed by certain local secondary schools. Exeter's Graduate School of Education has already indicated it will place its school contacts at the disposal of the project. See 'attachments' for a letter of support from 'Splendid Productions'.