IMC 2019: Sessions

This session aims to explore medieval views upon death, decay, and resurrection by looking into the role of a revenant- a dead person returning back to life - in a written narrative. Polina Ignatova's paper will discuss to what extent excavation reports can aid our understanding of the written sources about restless corpses. Thus, the latter usually conclude with the living mutilating an allegedly dangerous body. Can the evidence of mutilation found in medieval burials prove the existence of the fear of revenants? Rosanne Gasse will address the status of a reanimated corpse (is it alive, dead, or caught in between?) by discussing how Lazarus was represented in Middle English texts, as well as other resurrected dead appearing in The Vision of Tundale, The Gilte Legende, Amis and Amiloun, and The Alphabet of Tales. Ben Parsons will discuss the role of a medieval revenant in William Baldwin's Beware the Cat and demonstrate how medieval ideas of spirits pervade the text, which positions itself as self-consciously 'modern' in contrast against a medieval past. Finally, Stephen Gordon's paper will explore how the cultural conception of the ‘revenant’ was articulated in Chaucer’s Friar's Tale, and demonstrate how the reference to the devil's taking of 'dede bodyes' adds an extra ironic nuance to the mercantile themes that permeate the Canterbury Tales.