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IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 704: (Don't) Fear the Reaper: Fearful Fascination with Death in the Middle Ages

Tuesday 8 July 2014, 14.15-15.45

Organiser:Christian Livermore, School of English / St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Moderator/Chair:Jennifer Key, School of English, University of St Andrews
Paper 704-aThe Satirical Use of 'Wonder Stories' in Walter Map's De nugis curialium
(Language: English)
Stephen Gordon, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester
Index terms: Daily Life, Folk Studies
Paper 704-bRevenants: From the Church to Literature - Searching for Sources of Medieval and Modern Supernatural Tales in Cadaver Art
(Language: English)
Christian Livermore, School of English / St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Folk Studies, Historiography - Medieval
Paper 704-cRestless Spirits, Migrating Ghosts: Medieval Tradition in Puritan Ghost Stories in 17th-Century New England
(Language: English)
Joanna Ludwikowska, Department of English Literature & Literary Linguistics, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, PoznaƄ
Index terms: Daily Life, Folk Studies
Abstract

Medieval people felt deep anxiety about death. This session will explore ecclesiastical and lay contexts in which people explored views of the afterlife. Stephen Gordon will discuss the satirical use of 'wonder stories' in Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium. Christian Livermore will explore the cocktail of fear of death, Christian eschatology and other factors that spawned church cadaver art, danse macabre, and lay supernatural cadaver tales. Joanna Ludwikowska-Leniec will draw on English broadside ballads and Increase Mather's Remarkable Providences to reconstruct the migration of ghost stories from late medieval England to 17th-century New England.