IMC 2018: Sessions
Session 1322: Memories Have Gone to Our Heads: Constructing Memory around the Figures of the Medieval Head and Skull
Wednesday 4 July 2018, 16.30-18.00
Organiser: | Lauren Rozenberg, Department of History of Art, University College London |
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Moderator/Chair: | Eduardo Correia, Department of English, King's College London |
Paper 1322-a | In memoriam Æschere: A Head Full of Worry (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Literacy and Orality |
Paper 1322-b | Virtus memorativa: Diagramming the Brain in Late Medieval Medical Treatises (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - General, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Medicine, Science |
Paper 1322-c | Memorialising Sanctity: Deconstructing the Textile Skull Reliquaries of Cologne's 11,000 Holy Virgins (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - General, Hagiography, Religious Life |
Abstract | With papers ranging from very different time periods and fields, this session questions how the idea of the head was used in relation to memory. First, S. Stolk looks at how Aeschere's severed head, in Beowulf, works as a stark reminder of Hrothgar's failure. Then, L. Rozenberg interrogates how visualisations of the power of memory, situated in the brain, helped shape a different understanding of the faculty, from a medical point of view. Then, C. Casey examines the skull reliquaries of Cologne to consider how they were used to construct a sense of sanctity and collective memory. Because memory is one of those concepts that transcends time and invokes an array of possible definitions, the papers come together to redefine how the medieval motif of the head embodies them. |