medieval

The Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies at the University of Virginia's College at Wise announces the Thirty-Sixth Medieval-Renaissance Conference, September 21-23, 2023

Keynote Address

 Matthew Gabriele

Virginia Tech University

 Oathbreakers: The Long Shadow of Fontenoy (841 CE)

in the European Middle Ages

Literary, theoretical, and philosophical engagements with “the everyday” have a broad, transhistorical scope—from stoic philosophy to canonical hours, or medieval books of precepts; from Locke and Kant in the eighteenth century to Wittgenstein, Austin, and the ordinary language philosophy of the early twentieth century; from Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau to Toril Moi and Stanley Cavell; from considerations of the realist novel of the nineteenth century to the modernist novel of the twentieth (and beyond). 

Call for paper “Doctor Virtualis” 19

Fragments of order and disorder in the Middle Ages

«Sosteneva, fra l’altro, che le inopinate catastrofi non sono mai la conseguenza o l’effetto che dir si voglia d’un unico motivo, d’una causa al singolare: ma sono come un vortice, un punto di depressione ciclonica nella coscienza del mondo, verso cui hanno cospirato tutta una molteplicità di causali convergenti. Diceva anche nodo o groviglio, o garbuglio, o gnommero, che alla romana vuol dire gomitolo»

(C.E. Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana)

Over the centuries, there has been a connection between pessimism and poetry/song. We invite proposals examining this connection sent to jdailey@gts.edu. Include your name, phone number and e mail in an e mail--not as attachments.

It is more than a cliché that gender plays a crucial role in religion, as most religious orders in the world were, and currently are, dominated by men. The role of women in cultic settings is, as a rule, secondary, as is also the authority of female ministers of religion, while the social benefits of those appointed with religious duties are also incomparable with the privileges received by men.  This year, we invite proposals that explore the female share in leadership roles related to religion (saints, prophetesses, priestesses, nuns, preachers, witches, shamans and more), and emphasize how their achievements are reflected in history and art. How prominent female figures have compromised men’s secured positions of power in socioreligious structures?

Diane di Prima dedicates her “Revolutionary Letters” to several important characters in her life, among whom stands out her grandfather. She states infact that: “The revolutionary letters are dedicated to (…) my grandfather, Domenico Mallozzi (…) who read me Dante at the age of four”. Several international authors of Italian descent of the late modern and contemporary period claimed the importance of Dante’s influence on the artistic development of their works as well as their identity.We are interested in exploring the influence of Dante on those writers and poets, especially women, who were born and raised abroad, and shared a common Italian heritage in the style and contents of their literary works.

Several recent, celebrated studies of late medieval English literature present their anchoring motivations as including one or more twenty-first century activist concerns – for example, scholarship that considers Chaucer and rape culture, examines the medieval roots or affinities of contemporary white supremacy, thinks ecocritically about the medieval beyond-human, juxtaposes medieval political events with modern ones, etc. Methodologically, such studies have involved explicit interleaving of analysis of late medieval English literary texts with considerations of texts, events, or discourses of the present.

From moving statues to artificial animals to marionette performances, puppetry seems to have appeared in every sector of medieval and early modern European society. Jointed religious figures illustrated the liturgy, while dragon effigies processed through cities on feast days, and popular and courtly audiences enjoyed puppet shows of legendary and historical events. Despite the ubiquity of medieval and early modern puppets in Europe, scholarly consideration of these performing objects is often limited to case studies. Consideration of “puppetry” as a particular form with its own norms and commonalities is also uncommon, due in part to the marginal position of puppetry in Western culture.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Cultures of Skin: Skin inLiterature and Culture,Past, Present, Future
7-8July 2023, University of Surrey, UK

The 2022-2023 Illinois Medieval Association Symposium will focus on medieval environments, with the term environment being liberally defined. We are now accepting proposals for 20-minute presentations for our March 10 session. Although we will consider proposals on any aspect of medieval studies, priority will be given to those dealing with medieval environments.

Dante Alighieri expressed the transcendence of the human condition beyond its limitations through the verb trasumanar in Paradiso 1. It is rare evidence that Alighieri had thought of a kind of "transhuman" change in the early 1300s. In the past years, we witnessed the change raised by the feminist movements, especially the last wave called ''transfeminism'', which pointed out how ''being human'' it is not enough for the subjectivities in order to be recognized by politics. For this reason, the word ''posthuman'' was used to show how monsters can be active participants in our society, being part of us.

Deadline extended to January 31, 2023

The Seventeenth International Conference of

the Taiwan Association of Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies (TACMRS)

20-21 October 2023

Chinese Culture University

Taipei, Taiwan

Call for Papers

Harmony and Chaos: The Dialectics of Order and Disorder

The journal Religions is hosting a Special Issue entitled “Religions in Ritual, Spectacle, and Drama in the Medieval & Early Modern World,” co-edited by Drs. Kristin M.S. Bezio (University of Richmond) and Samantha Dressel (Chapman University).

 The issue have proposed a final deadline of fall 2023 for publication, and we are asking for abstract proposals by March 1, 2023. Assuming all proposed abstracts fit the theme, we are hoping for initial drafted chapters by 1 July 2023 to allow time for revisions and editing before entering the production process. Final chapters will be due to Religions for peer review, etc., by 15 October 2023.

The 2022-2023 Illinois Medieval Association Symposium will focus on medieval environments, with the term environment being liberally defined. We are now accepting proposals for 20-minute presentations for our February 17 session. Although we will consider proposals on any aspect of medieval studies, priority will be given to those dealing with medieval environments.