Skip to main content

IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 1108: The Persistence of the Middle Ages in Law, Politics, and Theatre

Wednesday 6 July 2016, 11.15-12.45

Moderator/Chair:Klaus P. Oschema, Historisches Seminar, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Paper 1108-aMedieval Law in the Modern World
(Language: English)
Christine Kozikowski, School of English Studies, College of The Bahamas
Index terms: Law, Social History
Paper 1108-bMatilda di Canossa in the Italian and German Literature and Iconography in the 19th Century
(Language: English)
Donatella Jager Bedogni, L'Associazione 'Amici di Matilde e del Castello di Bianello', Reggio Emilia
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Women's Studies
Abstract

Paper -a:
Medieval British jurisprudence has formed the basis for legal systems around the world as a result of exploration and imperialism. Most frequently linked to the Early Modern period, English imperialism transmitted a legal framework to its various colonies that still resonates today in postcolonial societies. The Caribbean, in particular, has not completely shaken free of their colonized past and as such, medieval legal practices of inheritance, dower, and marriage are only recently beginning to be modernized. Thus in this paper, I will explore how medieval laws were adapted in modern, postcolonial Caribbean societies and their lasting cultural influences.

Paper -b:
A famous personality from two different points of view. The historical period taken into consideration starts from the Congress of Vienna and continues through the 1848 independence movements until the establishment of the German Reich in 1871 and the beginning of the Kulturkampf supported by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. In the same period, in Italy, the figure of Matilda of Canossa plays a very different role in the liberal catholic Neo-Guelphism on the way to national independence. Theatrical works and other writings in prose and poetry which retrace the Canossa events are used as documentation. There are also references to paintings which highlighted the media image of Matilda, especially with reference to the Canossagang (Walk to Canossa). The paper includes quotations about Matilda whose role is much less important in this German view of Canossa compared to those of Gregory VII and Henry IV.