IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 1729: Medieval Ecocriticisms: Human and Non-Human Others

Thursday 6 July 2017, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Medieval Ecocriticisms
Organiser:Heide Estes, Department of English, Monmouth University, New York
Moderator/Chair:Heide Estes, Department of English, Monmouth University, New York
Paper 1729-aAnimals and Gods in Norse Mythology
(Language: English)
Timothy Bourns, St John's College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Mentalities, Pagan Religions
Paper 1729-bOtherness as a Symbol for Corrupt Human Nature in Old Icelandic Romance: An Ecotheological Reading of Ála Flekks Saga
(Language: English)
Tiffany White, Department of Scandinavian, University of California, Berkeley
Index terms: Folk Studies, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Monasticism, Theology
Paper 1729-cBeastly Criminals or Criminal Beasts?: Animals as 'Other' within the Law
(Language: English)
Lesley MacGregor, Oriel College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Law, Social History
Abstract

The IMC theme for 2017 of ‘Otherness’ refers primarily to human interactions with other human beings. The papers in this session examine how ecological approaches can engage with constructions of human ‘otherness’. Two of the papers in this session consider humans with ‘distorted bodies’ in relationships with animals, monstrous, or magical beings, and wilderness in Middle English and Old Icelandic literature; the third examines the treatment of animals in a legal context in medieval France. The papers overlap in seeking to explore how our understanding of the human can be enriched by analysis of animals and landscapes.