IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 1315: Narratives of Violence: Constructions of Encounters with Otherness in the Crusades

Wednesday 5 July 2017, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:	Susanna A. Throop, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:	Kathryn Hurlock, Department of History- Politics and Philosophy- Manchester Metropolitan University
Paper 1315-a	Defining the Self through Others: Crucifixion in the Narrative Accounts of the First Crusade (Language: English) Susanna A. Throop, University of Cambridge Index terms: Crusades, Language and Literature - Other
Paper 1315-b	Conversion and Violence in 12th-Century Crusading Narratives (Language: English) Jace Stuckey, Department of History & Politics, Marymount University, Virginia Index terms: Crusades, Language and Literature - Other
Paper 1315-c	Crusade as Therapy and the Lamentable Excesses of Violence in the Siege of Jerusalem (Language: English) Marcel Elias, Faculty of English, University of Cambridge Index terms: Crusades, Language and Literature - Middle English
Paper 1315-d	'Oh, what a stench there was': The Massacre in Jerusalem 1099 - Eye-Witnesses and Interpreters (Language: English) Alan Cooper, Department of History, Colgate University, New York Index terms: Philosophy, Theology
Abstract	Violence was an integral part of the medieval crusade experience and thus this session addresses intersections of violence and the 'other' within crusade narratives. However, these papers attempt to move the scholarly discussion beyond the infamous binary presented in the Song of Roland, where 'Pagans are wrong and Christians are right', and equally beyond the traditional divide between literary and historical studies. Instead, they explore how violent narratives served to define the Christian self, mark the conversion of 'others', and construct both medieval and modern memories of massacres. Collectively they demonstrate the complex interplay of violence and narrative in crusading sources.