All seminars start at 5.30pm and are held in the John Rylands Library, Deansgate
Thursday September 26: Stephen J. Milner (Serena Professor of Italian, Manchester), ‘The renaissance of medieval classicism in Italy: from manuscript to book’. *NB This seminar is in Samuel Alexander S 2.8
Thursday October 24: Cordelia Warr (Art History and Visual Studies, Manchester), 'The devil on my tail: Clothing and medieval visual culture in the Camposanto Last Judgement, Pisa'. Christie Seminar Room.
Thursday November 7: Katy Dutton (Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, History), 'Aspects of political culture in twelfth-century Anjou'. Christie Seminar Room.
Thursday November 21: David Matthews (English, American Studies, and Creative Writing), 'Dark and unlearned times: literature, print, and periodization between medieval and renaissance'. Bible Room.
Thursday December 5: Helen Fulton (Professor of Medieval Literature, University of York), 'City and Power: The Middle English Seege or Batayle of Troy'. Christie Seminar Room.
Supported by the John Rylands Research Institute.
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Friday, 1 November 2013
Guest Post: Rachel Yelding
We've been asked to take part in a blog tour for Impossible Spaces, a new anthology of short stories published by Manchester small press Hic Dragones. Given that the editor - Hannah Kate (aka Dr Hannah Priest) - is one of our committee members, and one of the contributors - Daisy Black - is a PhD student in Medieval English at the University of Manchester, we were happy to be involved in spreading the word about the book.
Today we welcome Rachel Yelding, one of twenty-one writers to be included in the book. Rachel has a BA in Music and Creative Writing from Roehampton University and an MA in Screenwriting from the National Film and Television School, and her story in Impossible Spaces ('I'd Lock it with a Zipper') is her first short story publication. Her fantasy screenplay, Paradise, recently reached the quarter finals of the Screenwriting Goldmine Awards. Rachel has a keen interest in folklore and myth, and so we asked her to talk about the traditions that have inspired her writing.
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My folklore hunger knows no bounds (you could play bingo with the amount of times an ancient Greek pomegranate appears in the grasp of one of my otherworldly characters), with my favourites being British and Japanese. In fact, my very first short script took characters from Japanese folklore, anglicised them and combined them with traditional British folklore. Because of this I would like to share with you my top five favourite characters and aspects from British and Japanese folklore.
British Folklore
I find it a terrible shame that a British person can tell you exponentially more about Roman and Greek folklore than they can the folklore of the land they are standing on, so I hope my five choices will inspire people to delve a little deeper into the mythical history of the British Isles.
Rowan
Rowan is a shrub with (usually) red berries found all across the UK. Everyone knows a rowan bush by sight even if they cannot name it, which is why I love that there is so much myth and folklore around this small tree. Some people even refuse to cut it down. I know I would be nervous too if I believed that the tree was where the Devil hung his mother from! A more positive folklore of the rowan is that if you carry a sprig with you or hang a branch from your door you will be protected from evil spirits and witches. Many aspects of British folklore are referenced in my work Paradise, including this aspect of the rowan. Should an evil spirit touch a mere leaf they will be turned mortal. A terrible fate indeed!
Jenny Greenteeth
Jenny is the English equivalent of a siren or Lorelei. She lurks in water, waiting to lure the young and elderly closer so that she can drown them in her long, winding hair and eat them with her sharp, pointy teeth. With her green skin, she is the embodiment of the treacherous pondweed that so often tangles itself around unsuspecting swimmers and was probably created to warn children away from lakes and rivers containing such weed. In my opinion nothing beats a seductive woman just waiting to drag you to your doom. As a female writer who uses it, I find it a classic and empowering trope.
Corn Dolly
If you’ve read my Impossible Spaces story, 'I’d Lock it with a Zipper', you may have guessed that at the bottom of my garden is a cornfield (though I’m pretty certain the farmer doesn’t hold to this tradition). Much like the Queen has Sandringham, a corn dolly is the corn spirit’s winter residence. In the autumn, after ploughing their field, the farmer takes some of the harvest and constructs the dolly (which can take many forms, not just that of a human) for the corn spirit to live in. The dolly is kept in the safety of the farmer’s house until spring when it is ploughed back into the field so that the corn spirit can give life to the new seeds.
Green Man
If you like your pubs then there’s a good chance you’ll have drunk in a pub called the Green Man. He also appears as leaf-covered faces carved into church lintels and on tombstones due to his association with nature and rebirth. He may sometimes also appear in more traditional Morris dancing tableaus completely covered in leaves, as Jack in the Green. I love that somehow today he is as much connected to alcohol as he is to being green, so maybe that is why in my world of Paradise he appears as the spirit hotel’s bartender, all tall and green and wearing nothing but an artfully positioned leaf.
Black Dog
There are many famous black dogs in English folklore, such as the Barghest and Black Shuck. You may know of black dogs thanks to The Hound of the Baskervilles or because Winston Churchill described his experiences with depression as a ‘black dog’ - and for good reason as the black dog is a spirit that literally hounds its chosen victim until their death. Much larger than normal dogs and with ink-black coats and glowing eyes, black dogs are wonderfully dramatic and (thanks to Churchill) also great visual metaphors. In Paradise Death takes the form of a giant black fox when hunting for spirits, combining the idea of the black dog with another of my favourite folkloric characters, which I will mention later.
Japanese Folklore
Japanese folklore is much more popular and well known in Japan that British folklore is in Britain, probably due to the fact that the majority if the characters are rooted in Shinto, a religion followed by around 80 per cent of the population. There is a shrine on nearly every street corner and most towns have special festivals. Characters from folklore appear in traditional Japanese writing as well as in modern film, computer games, anime and manga, and thanks to such international powerhouses as Studio Ghibli you may have seen references to Japanese folklore without even realising it.
Izanagi and Izanami
I love the tale of the gods Izanagi and Izanami, as it is a lesson that no matter how many bombs we drop on each other we are all related by being members of the same human race. Why? Because the tale is almost exactly the same as that of Persephone, despite the ancient Japanese having (as far as we know) absolutely no contact with the ancient Greeks. When Izanagi’s wife (and sister) Izanami dies after giving birth to the fire god Kagu-tsuchi, Izanagi goes to the underworld to bring her back with him; however, a terrible thing has happened, she has eaten the food of the dead and is trapped in the underworld forever.
Amefurikozo
The Japanese have a spirit for everything, and the amefurikozo is the spirit that makes it rain. He is usually a little boy carrying an umbrella either in one hand or as a hat and carrying a lantern in the other. I find it very apt that the rain spirit should be a little boy, as little boys love messing about in the rain. I can imagine him in galoshes or welly boots jumping in the puddles he has just made.
Hyakki Yagyo
Hyakki Yagyo means 'Night Parade of One Hundred Demons' and is most recognisable to westerners as the cat parade in Studio Ghibli’s The Cat Returns and Operation Poltergeist in Pom Poko. It occurs in summer nights where yokai (the general name for Japanese spirits and demons) parade through the Japanese streets by lantern light. Anyone who has attended a midnight parade will know just how strong an image this is, especially a Japanese parade such as the Takayama matsuris where percussion are beaten, dragon dancers bless the streets and elaborate, beautiful floats are carried about town.
Tsukumogami
Did you know that after 100 years even inanimate objects develop spirits? That is what tsukumogami are. I find that an absolutely magical idea. People would be so much more respectful of their objects if they thought they had lives of their own. Strangely though, the idea that objects such as shoes and lamps have spirits is harder for some westerners to understand than the idea that abstract concepts such as Death, Love and Jazz have spirits... weird. This difficulty is something to be aware when writing, but don’t be put off. The lead male in Paradise is the spirit of a whole hotel, but I haven’t met a single person who after a few pages has let that get in the way of enjoying him as a character.
Kitsune
Kitsune and foxes in general are my favourite folklore images of all time and appear in hundreds of tales across the world. I can understand why. I think they are absolutely beautiful and magical with their glowing eyes and silent scampering through the night. Kitsune are fox spirits with multiple tails (three for young kitsune and up to twelve for century old spirits), usually either silver or gold in colour, who have amazing magical abilities. Much like foxes in other countries’ mythologies, the kitsune range from tricksters to seductive murderesses. I think it is easy to understand why people would think a fox is a woman in disguise if you have ever heard their otherworldly shriek that sounds like a female screaming. Foxes and kitsune appear in all my writing which have night scenes in, from a cameo in The Automated Heart to three separate characters in Paradise. I don’t think I will ever get bored of the allure and mystery of the fox. When I visited Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari-taisha temple (famous for its thousand gates, as seen in Memoirs of a Geisha) I even brought back a stuffed fox (the temple’s guardian spirit) so that I would always have a kitsune with me.
For more information about Rachel and her writing, please visit her website.
For more information about Impossible Spaces, please visit the publishers' website.
CFP: Hrotsvit 2014: Pageants and Pioneers Conference
To be held on Saturday 31 May 2014 at University of Hull, England
In January 1914 in London, England, the Pioneer Players theatre society produced a remarkable and disturbing play about prostitution. This play was written by Hrotsvit, the tenth century nun from Gandersheim. Known also as ‘strong voice’, Hrotsvit has been claimed as the first female dramatist. Edith Craig’s production of the play for the Pioneer Players theatre society and Christopher St John’s translation was part of a programme of encouraging women’s writing for the stage in the period of the campaign for women’s suffrage. The play featured the punishment of the prostitute, Thais, by imprisonment, providing a topical allusion in 1914 to the brutal treatment of suffragettes in London.
This interdisciplinary international conference will mark the centenary of this remarkable production and provide an opportunity for a reassessment of Hrotsvit’s drama, bringing together researchers interested in the modern production of the play as well as the Medieval text and context.
Dr Anna Birch will lead a workshop reading of Paphnutius and a discussion, which will be filmed as part of the ongoing project on Pageants and Pioneers begun in May 2011 with Fragments + Monuments performance and film of A Pageant of Great Women. We look forward also to Pageants and Pioneers 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Confirmed Speakers: Professor Katharine Cockin, Professor Lesley Ferris, Dr Anna Birch, Dr Helene Scheck
Send abstracts of no more than 300 words for papers by 6 January 2014 to Katharine Cockin.
In January 1914 in London, England, the Pioneer Players theatre society produced a remarkable and disturbing play about prostitution. This play was written by Hrotsvit, the tenth century nun from Gandersheim. Known also as ‘strong voice’, Hrotsvit has been claimed as the first female dramatist. Edith Craig’s production of the play for the Pioneer Players theatre society and Christopher St John’s translation was part of a programme of encouraging women’s writing for the stage in the period of the campaign for women’s suffrage. The play featured the punishment of the prostitute, Thais, by imprisonment, providing a topical allusion in 1914 to the brutal treatment of suffragettes in London.
This interdisciplinary international conference will mark the centenary of this remarkable production and provide an opportunity for a reassessment of Hrotsvit’s drama, bringing together researchers interested in the modern production of the play as well as the Medieval text and context.
Dr Anna Birch will lead a workshop reading of Paphnutius and a discussion, which will be filmed as part of the ongoing project on Pageants and Pioneers begun in May 2011 with Fragments + Monuments performance and film of A Pageant of Great Women. We look forward also to Pageants and Pioneers 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Confirmed Speakers: Professor Katharine Cockin, Professor Lesley Ferris, Dr Anna Birch, Dr Helene Scheck
Send abstracts of no more than 300 words for papers by 6 January 2014 to Katharine Cockin.
CFP: Reading Animals: An International English Studies Conference
School of English, University of Sheffield, UK
17-20 July 2014
Abstract Deadline: 19 December 2013
Keynote Speakers: Erica Fudge, Tom Tyler, Cary Wolfe, others TBC
Reporting in the journal PMLA on the emergence and consolidation of animal studies, Cary Wolfe drew attention to the role of the Millennial Animals conference, held in the School of English at the University of Sheffield in 2000, as a formative event in this interdisciplinary field. Seeking now to focus the diverse critical practice in animal studies, a second conference at Sheffield seeks to uncover the extent to which the discipline of English Studies now can and should be reimagined as the practice of reading animals.
This conference seeks to reflect and to extend the full range of critical methodologies, forms, canons and geographies current in English Studies; contributions are also most welcome from interested scholars in cognate disciplines. Reading Animals will be programmed to encourage comparative reflection on representations of animals and interspecies encounters in terms of both literary-historical period and overarching interpretive themes. As such, seven keynote presentations are planned; each will focus on how reading animals is crucial in the interpretation of the textual culture of a key period from the Middle Ages to the present. The conference will also feature a plenary panel of key scholars who will reflect on the importance when reading animals of thinking across periods and in thematic, conceptual and formal terms.
Papers should focus on the interpretation of textual animals at any date from the Middle Ages to the present. We seek submissions that read animals in relation to any writers/periods or in terms of the following indicative list of themes:
*Genre/Media/Form/Mode*
animals in genre (adventure; tragedy; classic realism; satire; comedy; epic; lyric; elegy; nature writing; non-fiction, criticism and polemic; detective/mystery; gothic; sf; children's literature; graphic novel)
animal genres (bestiary; fictionalised [auto-]biography; fairy tale; fable; allegory; didactic story; pet memoir)
*Arts, Aesthetics, Philosophies*
reading animals in theatre and performance, music, visual culture, film, dance, theory
*Ethics, Politics, Society*
intersections of species - race - ethnicity - disability - sex - gender - sexuality - class
*History*
animals as subjects and objects of historical interpretation; animal materialisms; post-anthropocentric literary and cultural history
*Science and Technology*
bio-engineering; technologies of animal use; narratives of meat/vivisection; ethology; biosemiotics and zoosemiotics
*Environments and Geographies*
empire and colonialism; politics and poetics of space; globalisation; zoo-heterotopias; extinctions
Abstracts for 20 minute papers (300 words) or pre-formed 3-paper panels (1000 words) are welcome by 19 December, 2013 from researchers at any stage of their career, including early career scholars and postgraduates. Please send by email to the conference convenors.
17-20 July 2014
Abstract Deadline: 19 December 2013
Keynote Speakers: Erica Fudge, Tom Tyler, Cary Wolfe, others TBC
Reporting in the journal PMLA on the emergence and consolidation of animal studies, Cary Wolfe drew attention to the role of the Millennial Animals conference, held in the School of English at the University of Sheffield in 2000, as a formative event in this interdisciplinary field. Seeking now to focus the diverse critical practice in animal studies, a second conference at Sheffield seeks to uncover the extent to which the discipline of English Studies now can and should be reimagined as the practice of reading animals.
This conference seeks to reflect and to extend the full range of critical methodologies, forms, canons and geographies current in English Studies; contributions are also most welcome from interested scholars in cognate disciplines. Reading Animals will be programmed to encourage comparative reflection on representations of animals and interspecies encounters in terms of both literary-historical period and overarching interpretive themes. As such, seven keynote presentations are planned; each will focus on how reading animals is crucial in the interpretation of the textual culture of a key period from the Middle Ages to the present. The conference will also feature a plenary panel of key scholars who will reflect on the importance when reading animals of thinking across periods and in thematic, conceptual and formal terms.
Papers should focus on the interpretation of textual animals at any date from the Middle Ages to the present. We seek submissions that read animals in relation to any writers/periods or in terms of the following indicative list of themes:
*Genre/Media/Form/Mode*
animals in genre (adventure; tragedy; classic realism; satire; comedy; epic; lyric; elegy; nature writing; non-fiction, criticism and polemic; detective/mystery; gothic; sf; children's literature; graphic novel)
animal genres (bestiary; fictionalised [auto-]biography; fairy tale; fable; allegory; didactic story; pet memoir)
*Arts, Aesthetics, Philosophies*
reading animals in theatre and performance, music, visual culture, film, dance, theory
*Ethics, Politics, Society*
intersections of species - race - ethnicity - disability - sex - gender - sexuality - class
*History*
animals as subjects and objects of historical interpretation; animal materialisms; post-anthropocentric literary and cultural history
*Science and Technology*
bio-engineering; technologies of animal use; narratives of meat/vivisection; ethology; biosemiotics and zoosemiotics
*Environments and Geographies*
empire and colonialism; politics and poetics of space; globalisation; zoo-heterotopias; extinctions
Abstracts for 20 minute papers (300 words) or pre-formed 3-paper panels (1000 words) are welcome by 19 December, 2013 from researchers at any stage of their career, including early career scholars and postgraduates. Please send by email to the conference convenors.
Monday, 23 September 2013
MANCASS News and Programme 2013-14
New publications from the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies:
- Nicholas J. Higham and Martin Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World, London, Yale University Press, 2013.
- Nicholas J. Higham ed., Wilfrid: Abbot, Bishop, Saint, Donington, Shaun Tyas, 2013.
- Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Brian W. Schneider, ed., Royal Authority in Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford, Archaeopress, BAR British Series 584, 2013.
- Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Brian W. Schneider, ed., Kingship, Legislation and Power in Anglo-Saxon England, Publications of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies Volume 13, Woodbridge, Boydell, 2013.
Talks and conferences 2013-14
After ordinary meetings members are welcome to join the Director and the speaker for dinner at their own expense.
Monday 30 September 2013
5pm, Samuel Alexander Building Room S. 1.7
Dr Rory Naismith, of the University of Cambridge, will speak on ‘The Forum Hoard of Anglo-Saxon Coins’
Monday 11 November 2013
5pm, room to be announced
Dr Susan Youngs, formerly of the British Museum, will speak on ‘The Prince and the Hanging-bowl: the British presence at Prittlewell’
Monday 10 Feb 2014
5pm, room to be announced
Dr David Woodman, of the University of Cambridge, will speak on ‘The writing of history in twelfth-century Worcester’
Monday 3 March 2014: The Toller Lecture
Professor John Hines, University of Cardiff, will speak on ‘A new chronology and new agenda: the problematic sixth century’ exploring the issues raised by the recent high-precision radio-carbon dating project; 6pm, in the Historic Reading Room, John Rylands Library Deansgate, followed by a free wine reception, followed by dinner at Pesto, Deansgate (about £25 per person). If you wish to attend the post-lecture dinner please book by Monday 24 Feb 2013 with Gale Owen-Crocker.
Thursday 3 April 2014: Joint meeting of MANCASS and the Manchester Medieval Society
Dr Kevin Leahy, of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, will speak on ‘The Staffordshire Hoard’; 6pm in the Historic Reading Room, John Rylands Library Deansgate. If you wish to attend the post-lecture dinner please book by Thursday 27 March 2014 with Susan Thompson.
15-17 April 2014
The MANCASS Easter Conference on ‘Womanhood in Anglo-Saxon England’ will take place at Hulme Hall, The University of Manchester. The Conference will be directed by Professor Gale R. Owen-Crocker, The University of Manchester, in association with Dr Charles Insley, The University of Manchester, and Dr Christine Rauer, University of St Andrews. Offers of 20 minute papers should be submitted, with a short abstract, to Gale Owen-Crocker by 30 November 2013. Registration enquiries should be directed to Brian Schneider.
- Nicholas J. Higham and Martin Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World, London, Yale University Press, 2013.
- Nicholas J. Higham ed., Wilfrid: Abbot, Bishop, Saint, Donington, Shaun Tyas, 2013.
- Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Brian W. Schneider, ed., Royal Authority in Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford, Archaeopress, BAR British Series 584, 2013.
- Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Brian W. Schneider, ed., Kingship, Legislation and Power in Anglo-Saxon England, Publications of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies Volume 13, Woodbridge, Boydell, 2013.
Talks and conferences 2013-14
After ordinary meetings members are welcome to join the Director and the speaker for dinner at their own expense.
Monday 30 September 2013
5pm, Samuel Alexander Building Room S. 1.7
Dr Rory Naismith, of the University of Cambridge, will speak on ‘The Forum Hoard of Anglo-Saxon Coins’
Monday 11 November 2013
5pm, room to be announced
Dr Susan Youngs, formerly of the British Museum, will speak on ‘The Prince and the Hanging-bowl: the British presence at Prittlewell’
Monday 10 Feb 2014
5pm, room to be announced
Dr David Woodman, of the University of Cambridge, will speak on ‘The writing of history in twelfth-century Worcester’
Monday 3 March 2014: The Toller Lecture
Professor John Hines, University of Cardiff, will speak on ‘A new chronology and new agenda: the problematic sixth century’ exploring the issues raised by the recent high-precision radio-carbon dating project; 6pm, in the Historic Reading Room, John Rylands Library Deansgate, followed by a free wine reception, followed by dinner at Pesto, Deansgate (about £25 per person). If you wish to attend the post-lecture dinner please book by Monday 24 Feb 2013 with Gale Owen-Crocker.
Thursday 3 April 2014: Joint meeting of MANCASS and the Manchester Medieval Society
Dr Kevin Leahy, of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, will speak on ‘The Staffordshire Hoard’; 6pm in the Historic Reading Room, John Rylands Library Deansgate. If you wish to attend the post-lecture dinner please book by Thursday 27 March 2014 with Susan Thompson.
15-17 April 2014
The MANCASS Easter Conference on ‘Womanhood in Anglo-Saxon England’ will take place at Hulme Hall, The University of Manchester. The Conference will be directed by Professor Gale R. Owen-Crocker, The University of Manchester, in association with Dr Charles Insley, The University of Manchester, and Dr Christine Rauer, University of St Andrews. Offers of 20 minute papers should be submitted, with a short abstract, to Gale Owen-Crocker by 30 November 2013. Registration enquiries should be directed to Brian Schneider.
CFP: The Medieval Chronicle - Die Mittelalterliche Chronik - La Chronique au Moyen Age
Seventh International Conference
7th-10th July 2014
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, UK
The Liverpool Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at The University of Liverpool is delighted to announce that the Seventh International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle will take place at the University of Liverpool, 7th–10th July 2014.
Keynote speakers include: Professor Pauline Stafford (University of Liverpool), Professor Anne D. Hedeman (University of Kansas), Professor Marcus G. Bull (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), and Professor Christopher Young and Dr Mark Chinca (University of Cambridge).
The aim of the seventh conference is to follow the broad outline of the previous six conferences, allowing scholars who work on different aspects of the medieval chronicle (historical, literary, art-historical) to meet, announce new findings and projects, present new methodologies, and discuss the prospects for collaborative research.
The main themes of the conference are:
1. Chronicle: history or literature?
The chronicle as a historiographical and/or literary genre; genre identification; genre confusion and genre influence; typologies of chronicle; classification; conventions (historiographical, literary or otherwise) and topoi.
2. The function of the chronicle
The function of chronicles in society; contexts historical, literary and social; patronage; reception of the text(s); literacy; orality; performance.
3. The form of the chronicle
The language(s) of the chronicle; inter-relationships of chronicles in multiple languages; prose and/or verse chronicles; manuscript traditions and dissemination; the arrangement of the text.
4. The chronicle and the representation of the past
How chronicles record the past; the relationship with ‘time’; how the reality of the past is encapsulated in the literary form of the chronicle; how chronicles explain the past; motivations given to historical actors; the role of the Divine.
5. Art and Text in the chronicle
How art functions in manuscripts of chronicles; do manuscript illuminations illustrate the texts or do they provide a different discourse that amplifies, re-enforces or contradicts the verbal text; origin and production of illuminations; relationships between author(s), scribe(s) and illuminator(s).
Call for Papers
Papers in English, French or German are invited on any aspect of Medieval Chronicle. Papers will be allocated to sections to give coherence and contrast; authors should identify the main theme to which their paper relates. Papers read at the conference will be strictly limited to twenty (20) minutes in length. The deadline for abstracts is Monday 21 October 2013 (maximum length one (1) side A4 paper, including bibliography). Please email your abstract to the conference organisers.
The conference will take place on the south campus of the University of Liverpool, near the centre of Liverpool, Merseyside, UK. Liverpool has its own airport – Liverpool John Lennon Airport – with connections to many European cities. Travel through Manchester Airport (which has direct train connections to Liverpool) is also possible. Accommodation will be in Vine Court, newly built en-suite accommodation on the South Campus, fifteenth minutes walk from the centre of Liverpool and Lime Street Station. A variety of guest houses and hotels (at a range of prices) are similarly available near the university.
Additional information about costs, accommodation, travel and registration will be provided shortly on a dedicated conference website.
For further information please contact the organisers.
Dr Godfried Croenen
School of Cultures, Languages & Area Studies
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, Merseyside,
L69 7ZR, UK
Dr Sarah Peverley
School of English
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, Merseyside,
L69 7ZR, UK
Dr Damien Kempf
Department of History
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, Merseyside,
L69 7WZ, UK
7th-10th July 2014
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, UK
The Liverpool Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at The University of Liverpool is delighted to announce that the Seventh International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle will take place at the University of Liverpool, 7th–10th July 2014.
Keynote speakers include: Professor Pauline Stafford (University of Liverpool), Professor Anne D. Hedeman (University of Kansas), Professor Marcus G. Bull (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), and Professor Christopher Young and Dr Mark Chinca (University of Cambridge).
The aim of the seventh conference is to follow the broad outline of the previous six conferences, allowing scholars who work on different aspects of the medieval chronicle (historical, literary, art-historical) to meet, announce new findings and projects, present new methodologies, and discuss the prospects for collaborative research.
The main themes of the conference are:
1. Chronicle: history or literature?
The chronicle as a historiographical and/or literary genre; genre identification; genre confusion and genre influence; typologies of chronicle; classification; conventions (historiographical, literary or otherwise) and topoi.
2. The function of the chronicle
The function of chronicles in society; contexts historical, literary and social; patronage; reception of the text(s); literacy; orality; performance.
3. The form of the chronicle
The language(s) of the chronicle; inter-relationships of chronicles in multiple languages; prose and/or verse chronicles; manuscript traditions and dissemination; the arrangement of the text.
4. The chronicle and the representation of the past
How chronicles record the past; the relationship with ‘time’; how the reality of the past is encapsulated in the literary form of the chronicle; how chronicles explain the past; motivations given to historical actors; the role of the Divine.
5. Art and Text in the chronicle
How art functions in manuscripts of chronicles; do manuscript illuminations illustrate the texts or do they provide a different discourse that amplifies, re-enforces or contradicts the verbal text; origin and production of illuminations; relationships between author(s), scribe(s) and illuminator(s).
Call for Papers
Papers in English, French or German are invited on any aspect of Medieval Chronicle. Papers will be allocated to sections to give coherence and contrast; authors should identify the main theme to which their paper relates. Papers read at the conference will be strictly limited to twenty (20) minutes in length. The deadline for abstracts is Monday 21 October 2013 (maximum length one (1) side A4 paper, including bibliography). Please email your abstract to the conference organisers.
The conference will take place on the south campus of the University of Liverpool, near the centre of Liverpool, Merseyside, UK. Liverpool has its own airport – Liverpool John Lennon Airport – with connections to many European cities. Travel through Manchester Airport (which has direct train connections to Liverpool) is also possible. Accommodation will be in Vine Court, newly built en-suite accommodation on the South Campus, fifteenth minutes walk from the centre of Liverpool and Lime Street Station. A variety of guest houses and hotels (at a range of prices) are similarly available near the university.
Additional information about costs, accommodation, travel and registration will be provided shortly on a dedicated conference website.
For further information please contact the organisers.
Dr Godfried Croenen
School of Cultures, Languages & Area Studies
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, Merseyside,
L69 7ZR, UK
Dr Sarah Peverley
School of English
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, Merseyside,
L69 7ZR, UK
Dr Damien Kempf
Department of History
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, Merseyside,
L69 7WZ, UK
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
CFP: Fighting Dragons and Monsters: Heroic Mythology
The International Association for Comparative Mythology 8th Annual Conference
May 24-26, 2014
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia
Yerevan, Armenia
Conference Website
Call for Papers
We are happy to announce that the 8th Annual Conference of the International Association for Comparative Mythology is to be held at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (Yerevan, Armenia) from May 24 to May 26, 2014. All members are warmly invited to give a paper and to participate in the discussions.
Our topic (as well as the conference title) this year will be: Fighting Dragons and Monsters: Heroic Mythology.
The main focus this time will be on the Indo–European, Ancient Near Eastern, and the Caucasus mythology; however, papers about mythology of other regions of the world that conform to the conference topic are also welcome.
A list of prospective talks will be published on our website. Please take note of the following:
Titles
Please send us the title of your paper as soon as possible. That will substantially facilitate planning.
Abstracts
By January 15, 2014, please send, if you intend to participate, a short (300 words or less) abstract of your talk to this address. The abstracts will be reviewed by a selection committee; the selected abstracts will be published on our website.
Paper Length
The expected paper length is 20 minutes plus 10 minutes discussion.
The language of the conference is English.
Conference fee for the participants from North America, Australia, the EU, and Northeast Asia is $50, which will cover the conference dinner and reception. Students from the aforementioned countries and participants from other regions can participate for a reduced fee – $10. For the payment options please see below.
Also, those of you who are not yet official members of IACM, please consider joining the association! The yearly fee is $35 (it is $10 for students and members from countries outside North America, Australia, the EU, and Northeast Asia).
May 24-26, 2014
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia
Yerevan, Armenia
Conference Website
Call for Papers
We are happy to announce that the 8th Annual Conference of the International Association for Comparative Mythology is to be held at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (Yerevan, Armenia) from May 24 to May 26, 2014. All members are warmly invited to give a paper and to participate in the discussions.
Our topic (as well as the conference title) this year will be: Fighting Dragons and Monsters: Heroic Mythology.
The main focus this time will be on the Indo–European, Ancient Near Eastern, and the Caucasus mythology; however, papers about mythology of other regions of the world that conform to the conference topic are also welcome.
A list of prospective talks will be published on our website. Please take note of the following:
Titles
Please send us the title of your paper as soon as possible. That will substantially facilitate planning.
Abstracts
By January 15, 2014, please send, if you intend to participate, a short (300 words or less) abstract of your talk to this address. The abstracts will be reviewed by a selection committee; the selected abstracts will be published on our website.
Paper Length
The expected paper length is 20 minutes plus 10 minutes discussion.
The language of the conference is English.
Conference fee for the participants from North America, Australia, the EU, and Northeast Asia is $50, which will cover the conference dinner and reception. Students from the aforementioned countries and participants from other regions can participate for a reduced fee – $10. For the payment options please see below.
Also, those of you who are not yet official members of IACM, please consider joining the association! The yearly fee is $35 (it is $10 for students and members from countries outside North America, Australia, the EU, and Northeast Asia).
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