IMC 2010: Sessions
Session 723: Shattering the Norm: Disabilities, Diseases, and Monstrosities
Tuesday 13 July 2010, 14.15-15.45
| Sponsor: | Atlantic Society of Medievalists |
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| Organiser: | Cory James Rushton, Department of English, St Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia |
| Moderator/Chair: | Jennifer E. MacDonald, Department of History & Classics, Acadia University, Nova Scotia |
| Paper 723-a | 'Men without limbs': A Medieval Precursor of a War Veterans' Society (Language: English) Index terms: Medicine, Military History |
| Paper 723-b | Rosacea, Scabies, Syphilis, Oh My!: The Disease of Chaucer's Summoner Revisited (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Middle English, Medicine |
| Paper 723-c | Mapping Monstrosity in Anglo-Saxon Literature (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Mentalities |
| Abstract | This session will look at three instances of the complex interaction between geography, religion, medicine, and the problematic idea of the norm: whether through the monstrous races placed at the edge of maps but really central to the Anglo-Saxon heroic ideal, particularly the symbiotic relationship between Beowulf and Grendel; through men disabled in battle who form a fraternity dedicated to Corpus Christi; through the literary depiction of a problematic son of the Church. What did the 'body of Christ' mean for men without limbs, or when represented by diseased servant? How does the monster define the hero? |