IMC 2008: Sessions
Session 223: The Unnatural World, II: Visualizing Monsters
Monday 7 July 2008, 14.15-15.45
Sponsor: | International Center of Medieval Art, The Cloisters, New York |
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Organiser: | Asa S. Mittman, Department of Art & Art History, California State University, Chico |
Moderator/Chair: | Nicholas B. Deford, School of Art, Arizona State University |
Paper 223-a | Where are the Monsters?: Ireland as Civilised Space on the Hereford Map (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - Painting, Geography and Settlement Studies, Language and Literature - Latin, Local History |
Paper 223-b | Unnatural Women, Invisible Mothers: Monstrous Female Bodies in the Wonders of the East (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - Painting, Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Old English, Sexuality |
Paper 223-c | Ghoul, Interrupted: Society, Religion, and the Undead in Njáls saga (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Pagan Religions, Religious Life |
Abstract | Many scholars have turned to issues of monstrosity and abnormal geographies, using these themes to draw conclusions about medieval cultures and discourses. Such subjects are often viewed as being aberrations, outside of nature. One of four interrelated sessions proposed on 'The Unnatural World' (conceived in response to and in accordance with the year's theme), this panel focuses on the depictions of monstrous Others - differing from their medieval audiences in race, gender, species, culture, diet, and location - that reveal a great deal about the cultures by which they were created and so form powerful loci for art historical, literary, and theoretical investigation. |