IMC 2015: Sessions
Session 609: 'The graves all gaping wide, every one lets forth his sprite […]': Depictions of the Dead in the Middle Ages and Beyond
Tuesday 7 July 2015, 11.15-12.45
| Organiser: | Christian Livermore, School of English / St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Natalie Moore Goodison, Department of English Studies, Durham University |
| Paper 609-a | 'Ded boonys that day shal aryse': Impact of the Resurrection on Revenant Tales (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Folk Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Middle English |
| Paper 609-b | 'A spectre fell of fiendish might': The Violent Undead in Scotland from the Late Middle Ages to the 19th Century (Language: English) Index terms: Folk Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Middle English |
| Paper 609-c | Danse Macabre as Renewal and Reform in Late Medieval Iconography (Language: English) Index terms: Architecture - General, Art History - General |
| Abstract | Medieval views of death and the dead were constructed from a dynamic cross-fertilisation between Church doctrine, lay superstition, and the interpretations of the arts. With the coming of the Reformation, these views evolved, but did not disappear. Christian Livermore will examine the impact of the doctrine of Resurrection and the cult of the body on medieval ecclesiastical accounts of revenants. Martha McGill will compare medieval revenants and their 18th- and 19th-century counterparts, and examine how depictions changed after the Reformation. Caroline Novak will explore homologies and divergences of Danse Macabre in relation to earlier medieval iconography of visual-oral-aural semiotic representations of mortality and soteriology. |