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 |
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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-a | The Thousand Tiny Itinerants of St Guthlac's Body: Redux (Language: English) Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English |
Paper 323-b | Bringing Borderland Monsters in from the Cold: Christ Acclaimed by the Beasts on the Bewcastle and Ruthwell Crosses (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Archaeology - Sites, Art History - Sculpture, Geography and Settlement Studies |
Paper 323-c | Trespass and the Unnatural World: Werewolves and Gorgons (Language: English) 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. |