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IMC 2008: Sessions

Session 323: The Unnatural World, III: Monstrous Spaces

Monday 7 July 2008, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Glasgow Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, University of Glasgow
Organiser:Asa S. Mittman, Department of Art & Art History, California State University, Chico
Moderator/Chair:Debra Higgs Strickland, Glasgow Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, University of Glasgow
Paper 323-aThe Thousand Tiny Itinerants of St Guthlac's Body: Redux
(Language: English)
Eileen A. Joy, Department of English Language & Literature, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English
Paper 323-bBringing Borderland Monsters in from the Cold: Christ Acclaimed by the Beasts on the Bewcastle and Ruthwell Crosses
(Language: English)
Éamonn Ó Carragáin, Department of English, University College Cork
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Archaeology - Sites, Art History - Sculpture, Geography and Settlement Studies
Paper 323-cTrespass and the Unnatural World: Werewolves and Gorgons
(Language: English)
Patricia Dailey, Department of English, University of Southern Indiana
Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Architecture - Religious, Art History - General, Pagan Religions
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 monstrosity as a marker for the boundaries. In these three papers, we confront the borders of 'civilization', out in St Guthlac's murky fen, at the northern border of England, and at the blurred edges of the human body itself.