IMC 2003: Sessions

Session 617: Friendship and Power, II: Expressions of Friendship - Genre and Gesture

Tuesday 15 July 2003, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:	AHRB Centre for Byzantine Cultural History / Medieval Friendship Conference, The Queen's University, Belfast, 2004
Organisers:	Julian P. Haseldine, Department of History, University of Hull Margaret E. Mullett, Institute of Byzantine Studies, Queen's University, Belfast / AHRC Centre for Byzantine Cultural History
Moderator/Chair:	Margaret E. Mullett, Institute of Byzantine Studies, Queen's University, Belfast / AHRC Centre for Byzantine Cultural History
Paper 617-a	Sermons in the Post, Letters from the Pulpit: Influence and Network Hubs in the Letters and Homilies of Severus of Antioch (512-38) (Language: English) James George, Keble College, University of Oxford Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Literacy and Orality, Religious Life, Sermons and Preaching
Paper 617-b	The 'Hand of Friendship' Re-Visited: Gestures of Greeting and of Friendship in Late Medieval France and Burgundy (Language: English) Klaus P. Oschema, Historisches Institut, Universität Bern / Historisches Seminar, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg Index terms: Mentalities, Social History
Paper 617-c	Erotic Bonds - Gender and Power in Byzantine Letters: The Letters of Michael Psellos, C11 (Language: English) Eustratios Papaioannou, Department of Greek & Latin, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Gender Studies
Abstract	This is one of four planned sessions exploring the theme of power and authority in relation to frienship in the light of the recent proliferation of research in this area. This second session explores the variety of modes and conventions which could be used to convey, establish or reinforce frienships. Medieval uses of written media do not conform to modern distinctions between private and public communications, while the gestural conventions of the period are far removed from our own. This session explores the fundamental problem of understanding and interpreting the evidence for the communication of friendship in word and gesture.