| Abstract | Grouped by IMC Programming Committee
Abstract Paper -a:
This paper advances the two-fold argument that in medieval Germany there was a trend in secular literature toward the denigration of motherhood and that the writings of female mystics resisted this trend.
The first thesis is established through an analysis of four works of German secular literature:Nibelungenlied, Kudrun, Tristan, and Parzival. This analysis reveals a clear trend toward the denigration of motherhood.
The second thesis is supported by evidence from the writings of Hildegard of Bingen and Gertrude of Helfta, who countered the negative images of motherhood by offering representations of God and Christ that were graphically maternal.
Abstract Paper -b:
This paper will have as its objective to reflect on the problems of family relationships in chivalric fiction (from courtly romance of the 12th century to books of chivalry at the end of 15th century) in relation to the charecteristics of the origins of the romance genre.
In this literature the author's writing production crosses with questions about identity in a permanent process of questioning and searching.
It is this process that Chretien de Troyes synthesizes from a symbolic point of view in the Prologue to his romance Perceval: 'Qui petit seme petit quialt/ Cristiens seme et fet semance d'un romans qu'il ancomance'.
Abstract Paper -c:
Celtic elements permeate the Conte du Graal; however, arguments for how those Celtic elements were transmitted to Chrétien have too long been governed by two problematic assumptions: first, that the Celtic versions of the Arthurian romances have primacy over all others; second, that these versions must have been transmitted via Brittany. After demonstrating some difficulties presented by these two assumptions, this paper will suggest that the Flemish settlements in Wales may have been the most direct link between the Celtic realms and Chrétien de Troyes, via the connections of his patron, Philippe of Flanders.
|
|---|
