IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 1749: Medieval Ecocriticisms, II: Complicating Definitions of Humans and Nature

Sponsor:	Medieval Ecocriticisms
Organiser:	Heide Estes, Department of English, Monmouth University, New York
Moderator/Chair:	Michael J. Warren, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London
Paper 1749-a	Domesticating the Devil: The Ambiguities of Aldhelm's Cat Riddle (Language: English) Megan Cavell, Department of English Literature, University of Birmingham Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Social History
Paper 1749-b	Trial by Fire: Re-Examining the Furnace Episode in Daniel (Language: English) Emma Knowles, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge Index terms: Biblical Studies, Language and Literature - Old English
Paper 1749-c	Ecocriticism, Intersectionality, and Early Medieval England (Language: English) Heide Estes, Department of English, Monmouth University, New York Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Social History
Abstract	Ecocriticism is a relatively new subfield of inquiry in the humanities, burgeoning in response to climate science. Interpreting literary texts from a perspective that foregrounds the non-human natural world invites new readings of the world that humans occupy and how they interact with one another as well as with animals and the enviroment. These three papers complicate what we think we mean by the natural world, looking at demonic cats, divine fire, and the categories of 'human' and 'nature' in early medieval texts.