IMC 2018: Sessions
Session 1513: New Perspectives on Women in Medieval Romance, III: (Dis)Abling Bodies
Thursday 5 July 2018, 09.00-10.30
| Sponsor: | Institute of Medieval & Early Modern Studies, Durham University |
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| Organisers: | Olivia Colquitt, Department of English, University of Liverpool Rachel Fennell, Institute of Medieval & Early Modern Studies, Durham University Hannah Piercy, Institute of Medieval & Early Modern Studies, Durham University |
| Moderator/Chair: | Amy Louise Morgan, School of Literature & Languages, University of Surrey |
| Paper 1513-a | Psychosomatic Heredity: Forging Dynasty and Destiny through the Female Body in Mélusine (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Genealogy and Prosopography, Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Sexuality |
| Paper 1513-b | 'In all hur nobul ryche arraye': Visual Memory and Identity in Le Bone Florence of Rome (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Middle English, Lay Piety, Sexuality |
| Paper 1513-c | Gender, Age, Status, and Ethnicity: Methods of Marginalisation in Byzantine Romance (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Greek, Women's Studies |
| Abstract | This session focuses on female embodiment and (dis)ability, examining the ways medieval writers use female bodies to explore the physical, psychological, and spiritual boundaries of the human. Women's bodies are both enabling and disabling in romance literature: from the supernatural manifestations of psychosomatic identity in Mélusine to the ever-present 'ryche arraye' of Florence's clothed body, women's bodies act as a site of memory, a productive space to define the identity of future generations. Other female bodies marked simultaneously by disability and miraculous ability, like that of Hélène de Constantinople, can function as relics, initiating social, political, and spiritual change. |