IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 118: Old English Ecotheologies

Monday 6 July 2020, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:	Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Studies (CMEMS), University of Manchester
Organiser:	Abigail Bleach, School of Arts Languages & Cultures University of Manchester
Moderator/Chair:	James Antonio Paz, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester
Paper 118-a	Ecotheology and Active Objects in the Exeter Riddle Collection (Language: English) Courtney Barajas, Department of English, University of Texas, Austin Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Philosophy, Theology
Paper 118-b	Theological Depths: Andreas and the Biblical Flood (Language: English) Celine Vezina, Department of English Yale University Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Philosophy, Theology
Paper 118-c	Baptismal Boundaries: Waters as Typological Borders (Language: English) Bond West, Faculty of English Language & Literature University of Oxford Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Philosophy, Theology
Abstract	Placing Old English texts in conversation with contemporary ecotheology and ecocritical theory, this panel explores the points of intersection between environmental concerns and Christian theology in early medieval England. The conference's special theme of 'borders' prompts consideration of the boundaries between environmentalism and apocalypticism, human and nonhuman life, this world, and the next. In her paper, Courtney Barajas discusses the worth and subjectivity of nonhuman beings in the Exeter riddles; Celine Vezina examines space and agency in the waterscapes of Andreas; and Bond West explores the liminal waters between damnation and salvation in a selection of Old English poems.