Cfp: The Theory and Practice of Rhetoric in the Middle Ages
a session at the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies (May
10-13, 2007), sponsored by The Commonwealth Center for the Humanities
and Society

The purpose of this session is to explore the range of ways that
medieval authors engaged with the Classical rhetorical tradition.
During the European middle ages, Classical rhetoric provided the
paradigm by which writers and thinkers organized society, narrated
history, and experienced the natural world. More than just strategies
for public speaking, rhetoric offered a means of ordering the world into
comprehensible structures and hierarchies. In this session, we hope to
explore the interaction between the rhetorical text and the
worlds--social, cultural, historical, intellectual--it organized. We
are interested both in traditional rhetorical manuals as well as the
ways in which the language and techniques of rhetoric infiltrate other
aspects of medieval culture. In exploring these topics, we hope to
bring together scholars from different fields and disciplines, thereby
reflecting the broad influence exercised by Classical rhetoric on the
medieval world. Some topics and texts that might be discussed include:
Bede's de schematibus et tropis, rhetoric and the trivium, Cicero in the
medieval world, rhetoric in/and medieval law, the rhetoric of penance,
Alcuin's Dialogue of Charlemagne and Alcuin, rhetoric and the ars
poetriae, preaching and sermons, Isidore's Etymologiae, rhetoric and
vernacular poetry.

Please submit one-page abstracts to the address below (please include
complete contact information as required by the Congress). Papers are to
be no more than 20 minutes, and the deadline for submissions is
September 15, 2006. Submissions and inquiries may be sent to Andrew
Rabin (Department of English, University of Louisville) at:
andrew.rabin_at_louisville.edu.

Andrew Rabin
Assistant Professor
Department of English
The University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292

Bingham Humanities 336B
502-852-1722

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Received on Mon Jul 31 2006 - 23:19:13 EDT