Call for papers for two sessions organized by the The Medieval Chronicle
Society at the 44th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo,
MI, 2009

Session one:
Authorship in Medieval Chronicles

Decades ago, literary theorists were busy writing about the “death of the
author”. Today we are witnessing what could be called a "return of the
author", as there is an increasing number of studies focusing on the idea
of authorship. Fortunately, this has also spawned a renewed interest in
certain medieval writers, such as Chaucer, Marie de France, Chrétien de
Troyes, Christine de Pizan, Dante, and others.

However, authors of historical texts--chronicles, annals, journals, and
historical compilations--, have received considerably less attention. The
purpose of this panel is twofold: i) to raise interest in the idea of
authorship in medieval historiography, and ii) to examine the authorial
figures of various medieval historians.

The basic questions that this panel will explore are the following:

* can medieval historians be considered "authors" in the medieval sense of
the word?
* what do medieval historians say about their own work, and about
themselves as "writers"?

Other possible presentation topics include but are not limited to:

* authorial personae in medieval historiography;
* historians who claim or deserve the title of "author";
* words or phrases that historians use to describe themselves;
* authorship and authority in historical texts;
* the relationship between authorial and social/political/gender identity;
* historians vs. compilers;
* historians vs. scribes;
* multiple authorship.

Proposals not directly related to the announced panel theme may also be
considered.

Session two: Open session
This session is open to all topics related to medieval chronicles.

Proposals (title and an abstract of about 250-300 words) should be sent by
e-mail to Cristian Bratu (Cristian_Bratu_at_baylor.edu) by
September 15 2008. Inquiries are welcome.

____________________________
Dr. Cristian Bratu
Baylor University
Division of French & Italian
http://homepages.baylor.edu/cristian_bratu/call-for-papers/

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Received on Thu Jun 26 2008 - 10:03:14 EDT