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IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1528: Constructing the Crusades: Representation, Reinterpretation, and Memory, III - Discourses of Power

Thursday 9 July 2015, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Centre for the Study of Islam & the West, Queen Mary, University of London / Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages, University of Birmingham / Society for the Study of the Crusades & the Latin East
Organisers:Beth Spacey, School of History & Cultures, University of Birmingham
Stephen Spencer, School of History, Queen Mary, University of London
Moderator/Chair:Tom Asbridge, School of History, Queen Mary University of London
Paper 1528-aEcclesia or Regnum?: The Papacy and the Political Status of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099-1128
(Language: English)
Simon A. John, Balliol College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Crusades, Ecclesiastical History, Political Thought
Paper 1528-bFulk and Melisende: Constructing the Memory of a Crusader King and Queen
(Language: English)
Danielle Park, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London
Index terms: Crusades, Gender Studies, Women's Studies
Paper 1528-cThe Chronicon of William of Tyre as a Source for the Principality of Antioch, c. 1130-1184
(Language: English)
Andrew David Buck, School of History, Queen Mary University of London
Index terms: Crusades, Historiography - Medieval
Abstract

In recent years, Crusade historians have begun to question the extent to which crusade sources provide objective reflections of the crusading experience. Similarly, the assumption that the value of crusade sources lies only in the reconstruction of events has been challenged. Rather, it has been demonstrated that these sources represent significant cultural and literary artefacts that were influenced by the authors' own agendas and the social, cultural, and political contexts in which they were created. Alongside this, there has been a growing scholarly interest in the remembrance of crusading in literature, visual culture, and archaeology. The 'Constructing the Crusades' series of sessions extend these historiographical developments and offer new perspectives on the ways in which the crusades and crusading were represented, reinterpreted and remembered in the medieval period and beyond. Papers consider a wide range of themes, including the use of literary devices in crusade narratives, re-evaluations of events and sources, discourses of power, the evolution of crusade memory and its impact upon recruitment, and the performance techniques of vernacular literature.