My name is Máté Vince. My PhD project was entitled ‘From “aequivocatio” to the “Jesuitical Equivocation”’. I passed my viva in April, and graduated in July.

My thesis was an exploration of ambiguity in rhetoric, dialectic, religio-political writing and literature in Early Modern England. It examined the ways in which the attitudes to ambiguity were formed, with a focus on the development of ideas about the so-called ‘Jesuitical equivocation’, a special case of ambiguity that became infamous as a consequence of the Gunpowder Plot, and triggered a twenty year long religious controversy, as well as, possibly, served as an inspiration for the Porter’s puns in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
In the first part of my thesis, I analysed the ways in which ambiguity occurred in sixteenth century English and Latin educational texts and examined how the doctrine of ‘Jesuitical equivocation’ evolved throughout the theological controversy. In the second part, I used this as a cultural-historical background against which to read Sidney’s Arcadia, and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Macbeth. To demonstrate the parallels between religio-political discourse and literature, the thesis looked at common assumptions about how meaning is produced, conveyed, understood, misunderstood, or allowed to be misunderstood.

Between April and September, I was an Early Career Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study (Warwick). During this fellowship I worked on publications and began organising a conference on using, misusing and abusing Latin and the Classical tradition in Early Modernity.

Supervisor

Professor Peter Mack

Education and Teaching experience

In 2011/12, I taught on the first year Medieval to Renaissance Literature module.

Before transferring to Warwick, I began my PhD at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, under the supervision of Professor Géza Kállay, with whom I also worked together as a teaching assistant on a number of courses, including Reading Macbeth Line by Line, Shakespeare’s Problem Plays, Shakespeare’s Histories. I also taught the BA seminar Medieval and Renaissance Literature on my own twice. I was a visiting scholar at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon for one term in 2008.

It was at the same university that I received my MAs in English (with TESOL qualification), in Latin and in Aesthetics.

As part of my MA in English, I studied for one semester at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven as an ERASMUS student, I participated in the English Literature Summer School at the University of Cambridge International Summer Schools.

Publications

I have published papers and book reviews on Renaissance English literature, Hungarian literature, Classical literature in English and in Hungarian, as well as translations from English to Hungarian. For details, see my Publications page.

Conference Participations

I have given an invited paper at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and delivered papers at conferences on English and Classics both in the UK and in Hungary. For details, see my Conferences page.

Other Activities

In 2011 I co-organised the English Postgraduate Symposium.

In 2010/11 I was a co-organiser of the Arts Faculty Seminar Series, supported by the English Department, the Italian Department and the HRC.

I am a co-organiser of the Theology Reading Group, hosted by the English Department

In September 2010 I co-organised an international conference on Cultural Memory at the Department of English Studies of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.

Máté Vince

M dot Vince at warwick dot ac dot uk