IMC 2008: Sessions
Session 523: The Unnatural World, IV: Socio-Political Monsters
Tuesday 8 July 2008, 09.00-10.30
| 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: | Asa S. Mittman, Department of Art & Art History, California State University, Chico |
| Paper 523-a | Natural Monstrosity in Beowulf (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Political Thought |
| Paper 523-b | Unnatural Bodies: Cannibalism and Gender (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - Latin, Sexuality |
| Paper 523-c | The Wife's Lament and the Elusive Abode (Language: English) Index terms: Architecture - General, Language and Literature - Old English |
| 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 interplay of monstrosity and society. As notions of monstrosity were often rooted in a sense of difference from the standards of normative society, the definitions of these two seeming disparate categories were mutually dependant, as will be explored in these papers. |