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IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 816: Living under the Rule of the Other

Tuesday 4 July 2017, 16.30-18.00

Moderator/Chair:Ilya Afanasyev, Birmingham Research Institute for History & Cultures, University of Birmingham / The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, University of Oxford
Paper 816-aConsigned to Otherness: Muslims in Late Medieval Elche
(Language: English)
Dominique Aviñó McChesney, Departamento de Prehistoria, Arqueología, Historia Antigua, Historia Medieval y Ciencias y Técnicas Historiográficas, Universidad de Murcia
Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Geography and Settlement Studies, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Paper 816-bOthers in Their Own Country: Prussians in Prussian Towns in the 13th and 14th Centuries
(Language: English)
Raitis Simsons, Faculty of History & Philosophy, University of Latvia, Riga
Index terms: Charters and Diplomatics, Crusades, Geography and Settlement Studies
Paper 816-cThe Language of Othering in Medieval Wales, Pre- and Post-Conquest
(Language: English)
Zoe Bartliff, School of Modern Languages & Cultures (Translation Studies), University of Glasgow
Index terms: Computing in Medieval Studies, Language and Literature - Celtic
Abstract

Paper -a:
After the signing of the Treaty of Capitulation between Abd al-Aziz Ibn Musa and Teodomiro in the early Middle Ages (713), Muslims settled in the territory where the Eastern Spanish city of Elche stands today. They measured, carved, and shaped that extremely arid land until the water flowing through a complex and highly efficient irrigation system gave rise to an identitary landscape of fertile orchards where a community thrived for over six centuries. With the arrival of the Christian conquerors in the 13th century, structural transformations and the ensuing legal changes would deprive the landscape of its identity, consign its people to otherness, and eventually make them 'strangers in their own land'.

Paper -b:
After the subjugation of Baltic Prussian lands in the 13th century the Teutonic Order and Prussian bishoprics began to reform the Prussian local government structures according to western European models. A considerable role in this restructuring was played by the German settlers who brought the German rights to Prussia and formed new social and economic structures in Prussia according to German models. The local Prussians and a small Slavonic minority continued to live alongside Germans in the new towns built according to West European models. The Prussians and Slavs were prescribed a variety of legal statuses. The present paper will outline the legal status of Prussians in Prussian towns and the testimonies regarding Prussian influence in formation of the net of Prussian towns during the 13-14th centuries.

Paper -c:
This paper proposes to analyse the shift in the language used to describe the Other following the Norman conquest of Wales. This paper will draw upon the analysis of the multi-genre corpus created through the course of my PhD thesis in order to demonstrate how the literary Other slowly altered in order to reflect the external political situation of Medieval Wales. As a peripheral culture, the Welsh were regularly othered by their neighbours, particularly following the Norman Conquest and the establishment of the March. This, however, led to a very distinct sense of self, as evidenced by the prominence of the Welsh legal and narrative traditions. As a consequence there was also a very concrete conception of the Other. When the Welsh were faced with the cultural shift introduced by the presence of the Normans it is unsurprising that the concept of the Other shifted with it. Using corpus linguistic analysis this paper will empirically demonstrate this altered perception.