IMC 2016: Sessions
Session 1702: Representations of Women in Anglo-Saxon England
Thursday 7 July 2016, 14.15-15.45
| Organiser: | Alice Hicklin, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge |
|---|---|
| Moderator/Chair: | Albert Fenton, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge |
| Paper 1702-a | Purity and Pollution: Consecration and Condemnation of the Female Body in the Anglo-Saxon Period, Dead and Alive (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - General, Ecclesiastical History, Gender Studies, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1702-b | 'Widgongel wif word gespringeð': Queens as Power-Brokers in Anglo-Saxon England (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Military History, Politics and Diplomacy, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1702-c | A Semantic Investigation of Anglo-Saxon Women (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Old English, Women's Studies |
| Abstract | This interdisciplinary session explores attitudes to women and the female form in Anglo-Saxon England, assessing the diverse evidence found in archaeological sites, narrative history, linguistics, and monastic schooltexts. The first paper examines the ways in which the Anglo-Saxon church sought to legislate treatment of the female body, dead and alive, secular and religious, and the ways in which the archaeological record displays both Anglo-Saxons' adherence and deviation to the spirit of these laws. The second collects evidence for the importance of queens and female elites as key power brokers and diplomats across the Anglo-Saxon period, while the third explores dialectal and semantic issues around a set of terms denoting women and female beings. |