Skip to main content

IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 115: Crossing the Border: Movement and Stasis in Old English Texts

Monday 6 July 2020, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:School of English, University of Nottingham
Organiser:Eleni Ponirakis, School of English, University of Nottingham
Moderator/Chair:Eleni Ponirakis, School of English, University of Nottingham
Paper 115-aEmotions Inside and Outside: Crossing the Border
(Language: English)
Alice D. Jorgensen, School of English, Trinity College Dublin
Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Mentalities
Paper 115-bWondrous Wanderings: Moving through Liminal Space in the Old English Riddles
(Language: English)
Ilse Schweitzer VanDonkelaar, Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Mentalities
Paper 115-cCrossing over to the Divine: Stillness in an Old English Sermon on Guthlac
(Language: English)
Rebecca Hardie, Department of English, King's College London
Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English, Mentalities
Paper 115-dCrossing Gender Boundaries: Spiritual Knowledge and Gender Fluidity in Ælfric's Lives of Saints
(Language: English)
Abigail Williams, School of English University of Nottingham
Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English
Abstract

These papers explore the idea of movement or resistance to movement across borders. 'Wondrous wanderings' explores how the non-human moves across engineered and natural boundaries in the riddles, and the resulting emotional responses. 'Emotions inside and outside' looks at how emotions travel across the boundary between inner and outer worlds in the OE prose Guthlac and other texts. ‘Crossing gender’ looks at how wisdom is gendered in Ælfric's Saints lives in those saints who cross gender boundaries, and finally 'Crossing the divine' looks at stillness as wisdom on the border between good and evil in Guthlac A and B.