IMC 2008: Sessions

Session 815: The Natural World and Late Medieval Devotion

Organiser:	Jennifer Brown, Department of English, University of Hartford, Connecticut
Moderator/Chair:	Robin Stephen Gilbank, Department of English Literature & Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University
Paper 815-a	Birds, Deserts, and Trees: Nature and the Middle English Life of Christina Mirabilis (Language: English) Jennifer Brown, Department of English, University of Hartford, Connecticut Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Middle English
Paper 815-b	Construct vs. Circumstance: The Natural Space of Anchoritism (Language: English) Michelle M. Sauer, Department of English, Minot State University, North Dakota Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Language and Literature - Middle English, Religious Life
Paper 815-c	Walking in Nature: Strolls and Ambles in Late Medieval Literature (Language: English) Robert J. Hasenfratz, Department of English, University of Connecticut Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Religious Life
Abstract	This session examines the way that the natural world is used both literally and metaphorically in vernacular devotional literature in late medieval England. All three papers will examine in which ways nature is used as both foil and complement to the world of society and men, and the different ways devotional authors and readers understand what is 'natural' about the world and what is 'unnatural'.