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IMC 2019: Sessions

Session 1011: Medieval Wedding Poetry

Wednesday 3 July 2019, 09.00-10.30

Organiser:Gabriel Wasserman, Department of Hebrew Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Moderator/Chair:Eva Frojmovic, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Leeds
Respondent:Kimberly Klimek, Department of History, Metropolitan State University of Denver
Paper 1011-aHeywood's 1554 Wedding Ballad in Light of Medieval Antecedents
(Language: English)
Jane Flynn, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Performance Arts - General
Paper 1011-bThe Wedding of Adam and Eve in Medieval Jewish Wedding Poetry
(Language: English)
Gabriel Wasserman, Department of Hebrew Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Index terms: Biblical Studies, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Liturgy
Paper 1011-cNova nupta, nupta Deo: Echoes of Antiquity in Medieval Latin Wedding Poems
(Language: English)
Cynthia White, Department of Classics, University of Arizona
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance)
Abstract

The papers in this session focus on poetic texts connected to weddings, either as a part of the ritual or in celebration of the weddings. Paper -a discusses John Heywood's ballad commemorating the marriage of Mary Tudor and Phillip of Spain in 1554, in light of its connections to antecedents from the 14th century onward, especially John Lydgate's 1432 poetic commemoration of Henry VI's London entry; the text upholds some inherited tropes, but subverts others. Paper -b discusses poems recited in Jewish liturgy in high medieval France and Germany, which tell the story of Adam and Eve's wedding, the prototype for all subsequent marriages; the role of wedding-maker and guest, played by God Himself in the story, is the model for the role of the community in the medieval weddings. Paper -c is a response to the first two papers, which highlights what these texts can and cannot tell us about the societies that produced them.