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IMC 2007: Sessions

Session 519: Cities in Arthurian Fiction, Arthurian Fiction in Cities, I - Latin Texts

Tuesday 10 July 2007, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC), Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen / Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft
Organiser:Cora Dietl, Institut für Germanistik, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen
Moderator/Chair:Gerard Bouwmeester, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York
Paper 519-aAn Arthurian Renovatio Romae: The Presentation of Rome in De ortu Waluuanii
(Language: English)
Peter A. Larkin, Houston Baptist University, Texas
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Paper 519-bThe City of Edinburgh and the Castle of Maidens in De ortu Waluuanii
(Language: English)
Mildred Leake Day, Southern Benedictine College, Alabama
Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 519-c'Insula tres in partes digesta': The Use of Classical Patterns in the Description of Countries, Landscapes, and Cities in the Historia Meriadoci
(Language: English)
Cora Dietl, Institut für Germanistik, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance)
Abstract

Arthurian Fiction is well-known as an aristocratic literature. Nevertheless, Arthurian texts were read, copied, and re-enacted by city patricians. The projected two sessions aim at identifying and analysing the hidden links to civic culture in these aristocratic texts which made it possible for them to be received in urban contexts. As opposed to the vernacular texts, Latin Arthurian fiction (which used to be neglected for a long time) is linked to antique traditions which focus on the City of Rome. Therefore, the papers of this session will analyse the role of Rome in the articulation of an emergent English national identity (Peter Larkin), the difference between (other) cities and castles (Mildred Leake Day), and the influence of antique narrative traditions on the description of cities in Latin Arthurian fiction (Cora Dietl).