IMC 2018: Sessions
Session 207: Alcohol and Addiction in Medieval Literature
Monday 2 July 2018, 14.15-15.45
| Sponsor: | Scottish Medieval/Early Modern Studies Postgraduate Network (ScotMEMS) |
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| Organiser: | Martin Laidlaw, Faculty of English, University of Dundee |
| Moderator/Chairs: | Kübra Cevherli, Faculty of Theology, Sakarya University, Turkey Joanne Edge, Department of History & Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge |
| Paper 207-a | Mead-iating Masculinity: The Mead-Hall, Drunkenness, and the Renegotiation of Anglo-Saxon Masculinities in the Long 10th Century (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Old English, Sermons and Preaching |
| Paper 207-b | 'Dred delitable drynke': Alcohol, Memory, and Morality in Medieval Poetry (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Mentalities, Religious Life |
| Paper 207-c | 'Now and at the hour of our death': Marian Petitions as Expressions of Behavioural Addiction (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Language and Literature - Middle English, Lay Piety, Mentalities |
| Abstract | The conflation of drunkenness with sin, immorality, and a state of moral failing is succinctly expressed in medieval literature, particularly the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Langland's Piers Plowman. Within these characterisations, memory functions as a fleeting state which both confronts and escapes the drunken figure. Countering this, works of Old English may be seen to venerate the mead hall and the role of alcohol in cultural practice. The three papers in this session will examine the social criticism inherent in the description of alcohol and addiction, and present continuities between attitudes to drunkenness in pre-Norman-late medieval literature. Through analysis of representations of alcohol, this panel will examine the role of drunkenness and gluttony in relation to masculinities, memory, and sin. |