Skip to main content

IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 808: Texts and Identities, II: The Past, the Present, and the Future - The Construction of Identities

Tuesday 12 July 2011, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Utrecht / Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
Organisers:E. T. Dailey, School of History, University of Leeds
Gerda Heydemann, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien
Moderator/Chair:Helmut Reimitz, Department of History, Princeton University
Paper 808-aEthnic Identity in the Poetry of Venantius Fortunatus
(Language: English)
Erica Buchberger, University College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Latin, Political Thought
Paper 808-bMonks Writing (Their) History: Techniques of Constructing a Suitable Past
(Language: English)
Albrecht Diem, Department of History, Syracuse University, New York
Index terms: Hagiography, Monasticism
Paper 808-cApocalyptic Visions and the Shaping of Ethnic Identity in the Early Middle Ages
(Language: English)
Veronika Wieser, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Index terms: Biblical Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Political Thought
Abstract

This session looks at the intersection of ethnic and religious identities, and at their textual construction through poetic, monastic and exegetical writings in the early medieval Frankish world. While the first paper (Erica Buchberger) discusses strategies of ethnic identification in the poetry of Venantius Fortunatus, Albrecht Diem undertakes an analysis of the techniques developed in monastic discourse to shape 'constructed pasts'. These 'constructed pasts' were not only of vital importance for the formation of monastic institutions; they also provide a fruitful point of comparison between the formation of ethnic and other social identities. The third paper (Veronika Wieser) addresses the contribution of Christian traditions to ethnic discourse from yet another starting point, by focussing on early medieval apocalyptic narratives.