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IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 134: Changing Places: Travel, Translation, and Transformation in Medieval French Literature

Monday 7 July 2014, 11.15-12.45

Organiser:Victoria Turner, School of Languages, Cultures & Societies - French, University of Leeds
Moderator/Chair:Pauline Souleau, St Peter's College, University of Oxford / Hertford College, University of Oxford
Paper 134-aTravel and Transformation in 'Guillaume de Palerne'
(Language: English)
Eleanor Hodgson, Faculty of Arts & Humanities, University of Sheffield
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Language and Literature - French or Occitan
Paper 134-bJourneys and Transfers in the Chronicle of Adémar de Chabannes
(Language: English)
Isis Gradín Fernández, Departamento de Historia Medieval e Moderna, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Mentalities
Paper 134-cTravel Yourself Ideal: Saladin in the Roman de Saladin
(Language: English)
Victoria Turner, School of Languages, Cultures & Societies - French, University of Leeds
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Mentalities
Abstract

Reflecting the fact that travel is said to be a life-changing experience, this session is centred upon the effects of travel upon the traveller in medieval French literary texts. Our approach differs from existing research on medieval travel by critically re-examining the parameters and uses of travel narratives within larger works. Contributors consider the extent to which places can change people and people change places and address the formation of new communities, itineraries, and even bodies through spatial crossings. The three papers engage with the 'romance vernacular' strand and explore how the kinesis of travel may translate into other forms of movement and changes of state.