cfp.english.upenn.edu

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Rebecca Flynn and Salvatore Musumeci are seeking proposals for a new collection of essays entitled Spaces of Consumption and Disposable Culture: A Material Dialogue in Medieval Europe (c.1100-1500). This volume will explore the ways in which private or public acts of consumption during the medieval period define relationships between people and the spaces they inhabit. Proposals concerning the use/consumption of material goods (culture) and how such consumptions relate to gender and power will be of particular interest. We would like the essays in this volume to cover but not necessarily be limited to the following:

---the body: speech; body language (facial expressions, gesticulations, postures, mannerisms, etiquette); fashion/costume (religious habits, uniforms, jewelry, ornament, cosmetics, sumptuary laws, fabric)
---space: personal (private); public; sacred/profane; domestic dwellings; furnishings/implements; architectural structures (interior/exterior); landscapes
---gender/sexuality: expressions/visual signs of masculinity and femininity; cultural assumptions about gender; attitudes toward sexual practices and preferences
---human activities: “work” of medieval people; making of material culture (and for what purpose); prayer; pastimes/leisure, games, reading, writing; travel, pilgrimage; taverns/inns (drunkenness), feasts/fasting; consumption patterns (traditions/rituals)

We invite submissions from various disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and comparative perspectives, focusing on individuals, single sects, or groups. If you are interested in contributing to this volume, please send your C.V. and a 250-500 word abstract of your proposed essay including your theoretical framework and your primary sources to Rebecca.Flynn@usiouxfalls.edu and Salvatore.Musumeci@usiouxfalls.edu by June 1, 2009.