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 |
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Moderator/Chair: | Jennifer Key, School of English, University of St Andrews |
Paper 704-a | The Satirical Use of 'Wonder Stories' in Walter Map's De nugis curialium (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Folk Studies |
Paper 704-b | Revenants: From the Church to Literature - Searching for Sources of Medieval and Modern Supernatural Tales in Cadaver Art (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Folk Studies, Historiography - Medieval |
Paper 704-c | Restless Spirits, Migrating Ghosts: Medieval Tradition in Puritan Ghost Stories in 17th-Century New England (Language: English) 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. |