Poems satirizing the abuses of money appeared in all languages during the medieval period, but have received little scholarly commentary in recent years. What commentary has appeared has treated them in the larger context of venality or estates satire, and not as a discrete genre or as specific texts. Among the most interesting of these poems are those that personify money. Situated as they are at a nexus between language and money, art and commerce, the poems invite analysis from a wide variety of critical positions. Thus, this panel seeks papers that analyze these poems not only from a variety of linguistic traditions but also from different theoretical perspectives and aims to foster discussion among medievalists working in different fields as well as of varying critical persuasions.

Potential works include those by canonical authors such as Chaucer's "Complaint to his Purse" or Froissart's "Dit dou Florin" or the many anonymous works known as "Sir Penny" or "Dan Denier."

Possible approaches include

use of personification or other tropes and their relation to money as a semiotic system.
the poems' connection to scholastic discussions of money.
the poems as links between high or academic culture and popular traditions.
the poems as links between various linguistic traditions.