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IMC 2019: Sessions

Session 620: 'Deformis formositas ac formosa deformitas' / The Ugliness of Beauty and the Beauty of Ugliness, II: Materializing Ugliness and Deformity in the Middle Ages

Tuesday 2 July 2019, 11.15-12.45

Organisers:Teodora Artimon, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest
Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, Trivent Publishing, Budapest
Moderator/Chair:Teodora Artimon, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest
Paper 620-aThe Canon Law's Category of the Defectus Corporis and Scandal
(Language: English)
Ninon Dubourg, Laboratoire Identités Cultures et Territoires (ICT), Université Diderot Paris 7
Index terms: Canon Law, Medicine
Paper 620-bTrading in Beauty and Ugliness on Medieval Marriage Market
(Language: English)
Federica Boldrini, Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza, Studi politici e internazionali, Università di Parma
Index terms: Law, Women's Studies
Paper 620-cDeformity and the Body of the Sinner: Conceptualizing Deformity as Sin in Early Medieval Metaphor and Thought
(Language: English)
Kayla Kemhadjian, School of English, University of Nottingham
Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Mentalities
Paper 620-dThe Identification of Beauty-Ugliness of Animals in Romanesque Church Capitals through Human Emotions
(Language: English)
Hee Sook Lee-Niinioja, Independent Scholar, Helsinki
Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Art History - Sculpture
Abstract

The session debates the gendered aspects of 'ugliness' and its materializations when transferred from one cultural milieu to the other. It concentrates on aspects of beauty/ugliness with regard to the female body in the context of late medieval Italian marriage markets by presenting the circumstances when unmarried unsightly girls were favoured. It presents the defectus corporis of the clerical body as reflected in religious sources, particularly in canon law, in connection to the public's attitude and the solutions offered for such cases. Furthermore, it traces the evolution and connection between sinners and deformity in late 10th century England, into the late 12th century, in the context of the shifts in the conceptualization of ugliness as sinful. Finally, it discusses the dichotomy of beauty-ugliness in the framework of the theological doctrines of Romanesque period and theories of emotions.