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IMC 2008: Sessions

Session 520: Wild Nature and Human Culture

Tuesday 8 July 2008, 09.00-10.30

Moderator/Chair:Irene Fabry-Tehranchi, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III
Paper 520-aBig Dogs Don't Cry: Animals and Communication in Middle English Romance of Sir Triamour
(Language: English)
Olga Burakov Mongan, Department of English, New York University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Rhetoric
Paper 520-bL'aventure de Kâlogrenant à la fontaine magique ou la sensibilité esthétique dans l'espace sauvage de la forêt
(Language: Français)
Tanja-Isabel Habicht, Centre Michel de Boüard / Centre de Recherches Archéologiques et Historiques Anciennes et Médiévales (CRAHAM - UMR 6273), Université de Caen Basse-Normandie
Index terms: Language and Literature - German, Literacy and Orality
Paper 520-cReclaiming Wild Spaces and Figures in The Turke and Gowin
(Language: English)
Bonnie Millar, Castle College, Nottingham
Index terms: Folk Studies, Language and Literature - Middle English, Military History
Abstract

Paper -a:
My paper proposes to consider 'zoosemiotics', to borrow Umberto Eco's term, in the 14th-century romance of Sir Triamour. Relying on St. Augustine's remarks in On Christian Doctrine that '[a]nimals…have signs…by means of which they indicate their appetites' (2.3), I suggest that the romance contrasts the signs produced by its canine hero with the feyre wordes characteristic of the human residents of the royal court. Unlike courtly speech (an instrument of deception), animal-signs accurately reflect the canine hero's inner world and such chivalric values as loyalty and honor, offering an alternative to the court's corrupt and unreliable mode of communication.
Paper -b:
Dans ma contribution il sera question du célèbre récit que Karlogrenat donne de son aventure à la fontaine magique dans Iwein de Hartmann von Aue. A première vue, il s'agit d'une aventure traditionnelle dans cet espace sauvage qu'est la forêt, par opposition au raffinement de la Cour. En relisant le récit, il s'avère que la perception de la forêt par Karlogrenat est soumise à l'expérience d'une aventure esthétique. Le chant virtuel ou réel des oiseaux - la musique - a bouleversé les sens du héros. Les deux sphères – nature et cour - sont moins opposées que l'on pourrait le croire à première vue.
Paper -c:
This paper examines the contrast between the chivalric code and otherness/wildness postulated by the relationship between Gawain and the Turk and enacted in wild spaces such as the magical/alien Isle of Man, many of which are drawn into the control of the dominant power, the Arthurian court, through the conclusion of Gawain's adventures. I will explore the depiction of wildness, paying particular attention to the significance of place in its conceptualization.