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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 1232: Borders, Border-Crossings, and the Works of the Pearl-Poet

Wednesday 8 July 2020, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:International Pearl-Poet Society
Organiser:Jane Beal, Department of English, University of La Verne, California
Moderator/Chair:Jane Beal, Department of English, University of La Verne, California
Paper 1232-aCrossing the Border: Moving between the Worlds of History and Magic
(Language: English)
Mickey Sweeney, School of English, Dominican University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Women's Studies
Paper 1232-bRhetorical and Poetic Borderlines in the Work of the Pearl-Poet
(Language: English)
Catherine J. Batt, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Middle English, Rhetoric
Paper 1232-cNavigating the Earthly Boundaries 'betwene bus and blysse'
(Language: English)
Ashley Bartelt, Department of English Northern Illinois University
Index terms: Biblical Studies, Language and Literature - Middle English
Abstract

Presenters will examine the theme of borders and border-crossings in the works of the Pearl-Poet, including Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, with reference to St. Erkenwald. Specifically, they will consider the borders between magic and history, rhetoric and poetry, and mortal weakness and heavenly virtue. Issues of self-referentiality, memory, and gender, as well as the depiction of natural environments in the poems, will also be examined in relation to borders and border-crossings in the exquisite works of this much admired but always challenging 14th-century, Middle English poet.