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IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 1525: Pain and Memory in the Middle Ages

Thursday 5 July 2018, 09.00-10.30

Organiser:Aisling Reid, School of Arts, English & Language, Queen's University Belfast
Moderator/Chair:Duncan Berryman, School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast
Paper 1525-aPain, Sight, and Memory
(Language: English)
Aisling Reid, School of Arts, English & Language, Queen's University Belfast
Index terms: Language and Literature - Italian, Medicine
Paper 1525-b'Di viel dú arme har nider under die verhangenen und under die verworhten selen und dunkte ir alze gůt': Expressing and exploiting the memory of pain in Mechthild von Magdeburg's Flieẞendes Licht der Gottheit.
(Language: English)
Catherine Coffey, School of Arts, English & Language, Queen's University Belfast
Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - German, Sexuality
Paper 1525-c'Contemplate the Lord and kiss His wounds': Reading Christ's Wounds and Pastoral Care in the Visiones cuiusdam Virgines
(Language: English)
Amanda Langley, School of History, Queen Mary University of London
Index terms: Lay Piety, Religious Life, Women's Studies
Abstract

This session will explore the connection between pain and memory in medieval European literature and art. Drawing on medieval optical theory, the first paper will suggest that vision entailed a tactile process capable of enacting physical pain on both the viewer and the viewed. The following paper examines passages in Mechthild von Magdeburg's Flieẞendes Licht der Gottheit that refer to the memory of pain and its potential to unify the soul to God. In a similar vein, the final paper will analyse Agnes Blannbekin's visions of Christ's wounds and the benefits gained from their memorisation and contemplation.