cfp.english.upenn.edu

Keynote speaker: Ann Marie Rasmussen, Duke University

From the nuclear to the royal to the holy, families fill the Middle Ages. As a dominant structuring principle of society, the concept of the family knits together the prevalent social, political and economic relations attending the formation and development of the medieval subject. As an ideological construct, the family motif pervades all spheres of cultural expression, from theological and philosophical debates to literary creations, visual productions and musical
compositions. As a taxonomizing unit, the notion of family organizes our understanding of language, of material texts and of literary categories. This year’s theme asks us to probe and complicate the questions of gender, structure and power raised by the idea of the family in order to illuminate the complex discursive relations at the heart of medieval society.

Our conference invites submissions concerning one or more formulations of the idea of family. Proposals might look at actual families,whether functional or dysfunctional, real or supernatural, or seek to theorize more abstract concepts of family in relation to linguistic groups, manuscripts and textual transmission. As per our group's mission, we welcome a plurality of perspectives from across all fields of study in recognition of the profound interdisciplinarity of our common object of inquiry: the Middle Ages.

Topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

genealogies
text and manuscript families
families of believers
divine families, the Trinity
monastic orders
gender roles
supernatural/monstrous families
genre and canon formation
arranged marriages
marriage as economic transaction
kinship structures
nontraditional/non-nuclear families
sibling rivalry
conduct manuals, didactic texts
wills, legacies, inheritances, posterity
language families
ruptures, estrangement, long distance relationships
incest
polygamy
childbearing and childrearing
dynasties

Please send 300-word abstracts to pennmedieval@gmail.com by January 15, 2011