44 th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University , 7-10 May 2009

Patrons and Writers at Odds: the Politics of Literary Creation
in Byzantium and Beyond

  This panel invites participants to examine the role (and function) of
medieval patronage in its various manifestations and in the socio-
economic structures in which it operated. Participants are welcome to
consider patron-writer relationships in late antique Mediterranean, as
well as more complex systems of patronage in Late Medieval Europe and
Komnenian Byzantium; they are also invited to examine patronage in more
evolved networks of economic and political power that both necessitated
and legitimized literary innovation.

  Proposals that cross over traditional disciplinary boundaries (and
those which consider the role of patronage in the context of political
propaganda) are especially welcome. In fact, the consideration of writers
and artists--both in the East and in the West--who espoused political
ideas that explicitly or implicitly opposed political authorities is
critical to the discourse of medieval patronage as it allows a rare
glimpse into the paradoxical role of medieval writers as imperial critics
and political propagandists.

  Please submit 300-word-abstracts along with a brief CV and a completed
Participant Information Form (see
http://www.wmich.edu/medinst/congress/submissions.html)to Christina
Christoforatou at Christina_Christoforatou_at_baruch.cuny.edu (or via post
in the address below) no later than September 15, 2008.

  Contact Information : Dr. Christina Christoforatou
                        Baruch College , CUNY
                        Department of English, VC, B-7-273
                        One Bernard Baruch Way
                        New York , New York 10010
  E-mail: Christina_Christoforatou_at_baruch.cuny.edu

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Received on Tue May 13 2008 - 10:53:19 EDT