cfp.english.upenn.edu

Medieval literature is filled with exiles, wanderers, wayfarers, journeymen, and pilgrims. This panel seeks papers that illuminate or center on some aspect of the wandering or exiled figure as presented from a medieval perspective. All relevant papers considered, but special consideration will be given to papers focusing on the following themes:
• Wanderers or the act of or value of wandering
• Pilgrims, pilgrimage, or religious journey
• Exile, outlawry, or banishment as societal punishment
• Themes or poems involving the ubi sunt motif
• Symbolic or literal interpretations of roads, pathways, etc.
• Excommunication / Banishment from God
• Writings of exile or texts written in exile
• Political overthrow or political insurgents living on literal or metaphorical fringes
• Shape-shifters, prophets, oracles, and other socially or spiritually marginalized subjects
By July 1, 2012, please email 250-500 word abstracts to Phil Purser, Lander University, at ppurser@lander.edu.