Announcements

Call for Papers: Arthurian (Im)Piety, Kalamazoo 2020

Arthurian (Im)Piety
Session for the 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(7-10 May 2020 at Western Michigan University)
Sponsored by the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch

Paper Length: 10-15 minutes

Deadline for Submissions: 15 September 2019

Justification and Description:

Arthurian mythos is replete with examples of pious instruction, correction, and devotion, alongside instances of impious disobedience ranging from occasions of trivial disdain to excommunicable offences. The Arthurian world, with its hermits and bishops, its swearing on books and its disingenuous deceptions, its adulteries and devotions, and all of their manifold consequences (or lack thereof) can be read as a contrast between piety and impiety. Such a narrative reading reflects upon the fundamental beliefs that shape the Arthurian world as much as the moral worth of individual characters, giving rise to questions about the intersection of the courtly, the chivalric, and the doctrinal.

Proposals should address the topic of piety and/or impiety in Arthurian literature, film, or other media. For the purpose of this panel, ‘piety’ is broadly interpreted to mean devotion to established religious beliefs or authorities (Christian or otherwise); and, likewise, ‘impiety’ is interpreted to mean a rejection or disobedience of the same.

Proposals should be of approximately 100-250 words in length, and accompanied by a completed Participant Information Form. Those who are not currently members of the International Arthurian Society are welcome to submit to sessions sponsored by the IAS but are expected to become members upon acceptance. Proposals that are not accepted for the session will be forwarded to the Congress Committee, which will consider them for inclusion in one of the General Sessions.

Organiser/Presider Information:
Shawn Phillip Cooper, Ph.D.
International Arthurian Society,
North American Branch
Assistant Professor, Rochester University
Rochester Hills, Michigan
spcooper@rc.edu

News from the General Meeting of the 17th Triennial Congress

At the XVIIth Triennial Congress, the following officers were elected:

President: Emma Cayley (U of Leeds)
Vice-President: Patrick Moran (U of British Columbia)
Secretary: Rebecca Dixon (U of Liverpool)
Treasurer: Leah Tether (U of Bristol)

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada was chosen for the site of the XVIIIth Triennial Congress. Information will be forthcoming on this site.

Photos from the Congress were posted from the Society’s Twitter handle (@CourtlyLit) and by others using the hashtag #icls19.

New Volume! L’affirmation de soi chez les historiens

ICLS member Cristian Bratu (Baylor U) shares the publication of his new work, « Je, auteur de ce livre »: L’affirmation de soi chez les historiens, de l’Antiquité à la fin du Moyen Âge.

FROM THE PUBLISHER
In L’affirmation de soi chez les historiens, Cristian Bratu discusses authorial self-representations and self-promotion strategies in the works of ancient and medieval historians, from Herodotus (5th c. BC) to Philippe de Commynes (15th c. AD). After describing the emergence of an author figure in the works of ancient Greek and Roman historians, Bratu shows that, in spite of the emphasis placed by the nascent Christian civilization on humility, medieval historians were anything but self-effacing. Subsequently, he focuses on the authorial figures of French medieval historians who wrote in the vernacular between the 12th and 15th centuries. Bratu uses a variety of approaches (philology, codicology, narratology) in order to shed new light on the authorial figures of ancient and medieval historians.  

« Je, auteur de ce livre »: L’affirmation de soi chez les historiens, de l’Antiquité à la fin du Moyen Âge. Later Medieval Europe Series (vol. 20). Leiden: Brill, 2019. xii+830 pages. ISBN 978-90-04-39807-8. 

For more information or to purchase, visit the title’s page at Brill.

Call for Papers: “The Resonance of Jean de Meun’s Rose in Medieval Europe,” IMC Leeds 2020

Download flyer (PDF)

From organizers Anne Reynders ( KU Leuven) & Janet van der Meulen (VU Amsterdam):

The Old French Roman de la Rose was one the most influential and controversial medieval works in the vernacular. It was widely diffused , not only in French, but also in Italian , Middle Dutch and English translations and adaptations.

In a series of sessions at the International Medieval Congress we aim to examine the Rose’s multi-faceted resonance , in the extant European translations adaptations and other literary texts as well as in material artifacts, decorated manuscripts, ‘erotic ’ badges and others).

We invite in particular proposals addressing the reception of Jean de Meun’s provocative play with pagan and christian authors and the concept
of contraires choses.

Although most papers in Leeds are in English, we accept papers in English and French. At the IMC in Leeds, papers are 20 minutes long and followed by 10 minutes discussion.

Please send abstracts of 100 words , along with a short biography (incl. affliation), to anne.reynders@kuleuven.be by 20 September 2019.

Please also feel free to send any queries to the same email address. We look forward to hearing from you !

Call for Papers: New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies

From the New College Conference organizers:

The twenty-second biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies will take place 12-14 March 2020 in Sarasota, Florida. The program committee invites 250-word abstracts of proposed twenty-minute papers on topics in European and Mediterranean history, literature, art, music and religion from the fourth to the seventeenth centuries. Interdisciplinary work is particularly appropriate to the conference’s broad historical and disciplinary scope. Planned sessions are also welcome. The deadline for all abstracts is 15 September 2019; for submission guidelines or to submit an abstract, please go to http://www.newcollegeconference.org/cfp.

Junior scholars whose abstracts are accepted are encouraged to submit their papers for consideration for the Snyder Prize (named in honor of conference founder Lee Snyder), which carries an honorarium of $400. Further details are available at the conference website.

The Conference is held on the campus of New College of Florida, the honors college of the Florida state system. The college, located on Sarasota Bay, is adjacent to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, which will offer tours arranged for conference participants. Sarasota is noted for
its beautiful public beaches, theater, food, art and music. Average temperatures in March are a pleasant high of 77F (25C) and a low of 57F (14C).

More information will be posted on the conference website as it becomes available, including plenary speakers, conference events, and area attractions. Please send any inquiries to info@newcollegeconference.org.

http://www.newcollegeconference.org
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Encomia 38-39

The International Courtly Literature Society is pleased to announce the publication of Encomia: Bulletin bibliographique de la Société internationale de littérature courtoise, vols. 38-39. The Editor is Beverly J. Evans.

The bibliographies in this volume cover the years 2014–2015. Several branches of the International Courtly Literature Society have contributed bibliographical data here and we hope that those who did not will be able to submit material in the future. We wish to express our deepest appreciation to all the bibliographers, coordinators, and bibliographical correspondents for their diligence in gathering the information presented here. Since this volume appears later than originally scheduled, some of the bibliographers, members, and officers have changed since the entries were submitted.

This volume also includes an article, “Taming Time: Writing and Motifs of Waiting in Twelfth- through Fourteenth-Century Occitan Albas,” by Guillaume Oriol.

For more information or to order a copy, click here.

Members of the Society automatically receive an electronic copy with payment of dues.

New Volume! Court and Cloister: Studies in the Short Narrative in Honor of Glyn S. Burgess

We are pleased to inform our members that Court and Cloister: Studies in the Short Narrative in Honor of Glyn S. Burgess (ISBN 978-0-86698-573-4) is now available from The Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Copies may be purchased directly from the publisher here.

Edited by Jean Blacker and Jane H. M. Taylor, this collection honors former ICLS International President, Glyn S. Burgess, and contains contributions from many current ICLS members. As expected from the title, the essays touch upon courtly themes.

From the publisher’s website:

Contents

Brevity as Emphasis in the Narrative Lay: The Long and the Short of It
—Douglas Kelly, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Looking in the Mirror and Twinning Tales in Milun and Doon
—Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, Boston College

Marie de France, Translator of Lais
—Rupert T. Pickens, University of Kentucky

Heritage in the Lais of Marie de France
—Logan E. Whalen, University of Oklahoma

Marie de France’s Chaitivel: A Lesson in rapidità
—Eliza Hoyer-Millar, Oxford University

Marie de France’s Lais in BnF MS. nouv. acq. fr. 1104 (MS. S)
—Leslie C. Brook, University of Birmingham

Où ranger les récits brefs? Petite enquête sur le contexte manuscrit des fabliaux et des lais
—Richard Trachsler, University of Zurich

Textual Clusters in Manuscript Transmission and Reception: The Lai de l’ombre and its Co-Texts
—Karen Pratt, King’s College London

The Teller and the Tale: Meta- and Micro-narratives in the Chanson de Toile
—Karen J. Taylor, Morehead State University

La Voie de Povreté et de Richesse, A Fourteenth-Century Moral Allegory
—Glynnis M. Cropp, Massey University

The Fire Rekindled: Brendan in the Baltics
—Clara Strijbosch, Utrecht University

The Journey of St. Brendan: The Navigatio through Six Centuries of Augmentation and Reduction
—Margaret Burrell, University of Canterbury

Where the Snakes Went: What Happened to St. Patrick’s Serpents?
—Keith Busby, University of Wisconsin-Madison

L’histoire d’Hasting: un récit bref dans le long temps des chroniques normandes
—Laurence Mathey-Maille, University of Le Havre

Authorial Voice in Wace’s Assomption and Anonymous Versions
—Jean Blacker, Kenyon College

Envoi: Multum in parvo
—Peter F. Ainsworth, University of Sheffield

With additional contributions by:
Jacqueline Eccles, University of Dundee
Jane H. M. Taylor, Durham University

Call for Papers: “Experiencing the Court”

Medieval and Early Modern Spaces and Places: Experiencing the Court, 2019

The early modern court adopted and developed exemplary cultural practices where objects and spaces became central to propagating power as well as places for exchange with other powers. This combination of images, objects, and sounds confronted the senses, making a powerful and distinctive impression of the resident family and the region they represented: flickering candlelight on glass and gold vessels adorned credenze (sideboards); musical instruments announced royal entries or provided entertainment; brightly coloured tapestries covered the palace walls along with paintings of biblical or mythological stories; cabinets displayed antiquities or rarities; perfume burners permeated the air; while the smells and tastes of rare delicacies at the centre of dining tables made for a multi-sensory spectacle.

This year the Open University’s Spaces & Places conference will address the theme of ‘Experiencing the Court’ by exploring the senses and the lived experiences of courtly life, whether based in a particular residence or defined by the travels of an itinerant ruler. This annual conference is fundamentally interdisciplinary: literary, musical, architectural, artistic and religious spaces will be the subjects of enquiry, not as discrete or separate entities, but ones which overlapped, came into contact with one another, and at times were in conflict.

The conference will examine life at court and will consider the following questions:

  • How can approaching the court in terms of the senses provide new methodologies for understanding each institution?
  • How were medieval and early modern courtly spaces adapted and transformed through the movement of material and immaterial things?
  • Which particular aspects of political, social and economic infrastructures enabled the exchange of objects and ideas?

Papers that address new methodologies, the digital humanities, object-centred enquiries, cross-cultural comparisons, or new theoretical perspectives are particularly welcome.

Please send a 150 word abstract along with a short biography to Leah Clark (leah.clark@open.ac.uk) and Helen Coffey (Helen.coffey@open.ac.uk) by 15 November 2018.

The conference will take place at the Open University’s partner institution Trinity Laban Conservatoire on 3 and 4 April 2019.  As Trinity Laban’s King Charles Court was once the site of Greenwich Palace, it is a fitting venue for a conference exploring court life.

For updated information visit our website: http://www.open.ac.uk/arts/research/medieval-and-early-modern-research/spaces-places

Call for Papers – Société Guilhem IX @ ICMS (Kalamazoo)

Call for Papers for Kalamazoo from the Société Guilhem IX

1. Session of Papers: Beyond the Canso
The troubadours are known primarily for their love lyrics, which crystalized in the later twelfth century into the genre of the canso. Yet not only did this crystallization occur late, but the troubadours’ inventiveness in new genres was irrepressible. From the adaptation of such widespread genres as the May song or the dawn song, to the creation of one-offs such as the excuse song or the I-don’t-know-what-it-is, they filled the court air with their playful experiments. The Société Guilhem IX invites contributions to a panel on these other genres of troubadour lyric. Panelists might discuss a lineage of songs in a given genre, songs that cross generic boundaries, songs that seem to belong to a genre apart, the (in)adequacy of definitions of the genres given in the later medieval poetic handbooks, the link between genre and melodic composition, the theory of genres, and so on.

2. Roundtable: Thibaut de Champagne and the Troubadours
Thibaut was the heir not only to the county of Champagne and kingdom of Navarre, but also to the poetic traditions that had come to him through his grandmother Marie and great-grandmother Eleanor, patrons of letters and the arts, and through his great-great-great-grandfather, Guilhem IX, the first named troubadour whose compositions have survived. Like his troubadour ancestor, Thibaut was a lyricist, leaving behind a sophisticated body of erotic and religious songs in his own language, Champenois French. The Société Guilhem IX celebrates the magisterial new edition of Thibaut’s lyric by Christopher Callahan, Marie-Geneviève Grossel, and Daniel O’Sullivan (Éditions Honoré Champion, 2018) with a roundtable exploring links between Thibaut and the troubadours. Participants might consider poetic techniques or topoi, melodic composition, networks of patronage, song exchanges, or any other aspects of this lyric art that may be compared or linked.

Please send abstracts of 200–300 words to Mary Franklin-Brown, brow2085@umn.edu, by September 1, 2017.