IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 204: Technology in Medieval Literature

Monday 11 July 2011, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	AVISTA - Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Medieval Technology, Science & Art
Organiser:	Shana Worthen, Department of History, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Moderator/Chair:	Kerryn Olsen, Department of History, University of Auckland
Paper 204-a	Rising Concerns: Leavened versus Unleavened Bread in the Hours of Catherine of Cleves (Language: English) Katie Lyn Peebles, Department of Literature & Language, Marymount University, Virginia Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Daily Life, Language and Literature - Latin, Technology
Paper 204-b	The Golden Plow and the Windmill Palace in Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne (Language: English) Shana Worthen, Department of History, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Index terms: Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Technology
Paper 204-c	Margery Kempe's Ring (Language: English) Elizabeth Harper, Department of English, University of Central Arkansas Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Economics - General, Language and Literature - Middle English, Religious Life
Abstract	This AVISTA-sponsored session on 'Technology in Medieval Literature' allows literary scholars to examine where and how technology appears in medieval literary forms, as well as technology's meanings, importance, and change over time. A broad consideration of technology, whether rings, plows, or loaves of bread, shows how pervasive it was in the literature of the time. Recent work on early modern technology and literature (e.g. Cohen's Shakespeare and Technology (Palgrave 2006)) has shown both the value of this approach, but also highlighted its difficulties and pitfalls, an additional element we hope to bring out in this session.