Graduate Colloquium Series: Michaela Baca (ENGL) 10/15/19
“Mythmaking, Propaganda, Rolls, and Scrolls: The Material Legacies of Tudor Legitimacy” Tuesday, October 15, 2019, 4-5 p.m. Location: 311 Glasscock Building Michaela Baca PhD candidate, Department of English | 2019-2020 Glasscock Graduate Research Fellow Abstract: The Tudor era is perhaps one of the best-known eras of the English monarchy. This was the period of the […]
“Mythmaking, Propaganda, Rolls, and Scrolls: The Material Legacies of Tudor Legitimacy”
Tuesday, October 15, 2019, 4-5 p.m.
Location: 311 Glasscock Building
Michaela Baca
PhD candidate, Department of English | 2019-2020 Glasscock Graduate Research Fellow
Abstract:
The Tudor era is perhaps one of the best-known eras of the English monarchy. This was the period of the notorious Henry VIII and his six wives, and later of the golden age of Queen Elizabeth I. However, the Tudor claim to the throne originated in a muddled line of legitimacy, and was won on a battlefield, when Henry Tudor—later Henry VII—plucked his crown from his defeated opponent’s head. His opponent, Richard III, was the last of the Yorkist kings, but far from being the sworn enemy of the Tudor dynasty, the York’s, Michaela argues, helped to shape it. This paper explores the Yorkist origins of the narrative of Tudor legitimacy. Using extant material objects, she explores the ways in which Henry VII participated in a tradition of material magnificence cultivated by Edward IV. Specifically, she examines propagandic and prophetic materials that ensured first the York, and then the Tudor, inheritance of the English throne. Ultimately, Michaela challenges the notion that the houses of York and Lancaster were irreconcilably divided during the dynastic wars of the fifteenth century, now known as the Wars of the Roses, and focus instead on the motivations and themes that connect them: legitimacy, power, and prophecy.
The Graduate Colloquium offers graduate students an opportunity to discuss a work-in-progress with faculty and graduate students from different disciplines. By long-standing practice, colloquium presenters provide a draft of their current research, which is made available to members of the Glasscock Center listserv. Each colloquium begins with the presenter’s short (10-15 minute) exposition of the project, after which the floor is open for comments and queries. The format is by design informal, conversational, and interdisciplinary.
The Glasscock Center extends a warm invitation to faculty and students to join in a discussion of Michaela Baca’s work-in-progress. The paper is available to members of the Center’s listserv, or by contacting the Glasscock Center by phone at (979) 845-8328 or by e-mail at glasscock@tamu.edu.
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