IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 225: Bringing the Outsider In, I: Encounters with the 'Other' in High Medieval Miracles

Monday 3 July 2017, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading
Organiser:	Claire Trenery, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London
Moderator/Chair:	Alexandra R. A. Lee, Department of Italian, University College London
Paper 225-a	Experiencing 'Otherness' on the Journey to the Shrine: Long-Distance Cure-Seekers in 12th-Century English Miracula (Language: English) Ruth Salter, Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading Index terms: Hagiography, Lay Piety, Medicine, Social History
Paper 225-b	'Each thing rebounds at the sensation of its opposite': The Exorcisms Performed by St Hugh of Lincoln (Language: English) Claire Trenery, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London Index terms: Hagiography, Lay Piety, Medicine, Theology
Paper 225-c	Islamic Pilgrimage and Christian Triumphalism in Christian Miracle Narratives: The Shrine of Saydnaya, Past and Present (Language: English) Philip Booth, Department of History, Lancaster University Index terms: Crusades, Ecclesiastical History, Mentalities, Religious Life
Abstract	The concepts of the 'outsider' and the 'other' are closely tied together and often act as interchangeable when demarcating the 'known' and the 'unknown'. Interaction with that which is considered 'external' and 'other' could result in both a positive and a negative experience, and perhaps nowhere is this more obvious than when considering relationships between the temporal and the spiritual worlds; be that in the physical landscape or within more transcendental relationships between the temporal and the divine. Within this two-part panel, these ideas will be explored from a number of perspectives in order to consider the role of the 'outside' and the 'outsider' within various aspects of medieval religion. In this, the first of the two panels, focus will be on ideas of the 'outsider' in high medieval miracle texts, and their representations of interactions between Christian communities and 'outsiders'. Our speakers consider various impressions of the 'other': from unfamiliar pilgrims who travelled to far-away shrines, to strange demoniacs who required holy healing, and finally to Muslim 'outsiders' who participated in their own pilgrimages.