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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 620: Performing Narrative on the Borders between Sacred and Secular

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Arc Humanities Press
Organiser:Morgan Powell, Departement Angewandte Linguistik, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften
Moderator/Chair:Carol Symes, Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Paper 620-aHow to Show Meaning: Performative Aspects of Allegory
(Language: English)
Katharina Mertens-Fleury, Deutsches Seminar, Universität Zürich
Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Language and Literature - German
Paper 620-bMapping the Boundaries of Sacred and Secular in Gautier de Coinci's Performance Persona
(Language: English)
Kathryn Duys, Department of Romance Languages & Literatures, University of Chicago, Illinois
Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Language and Literature - French or Occitan
Paper 620-cTears for Arthur, Tears for Christ: Performance as Mediation
(Language: English)
Morgan Powell, Departement Angewandte Linguistik, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften
Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Theology
Abstract

The study of medieval narrative art generally assumes borders between monastery and court or liturgy and entertainment that are reflected neither in textual transmission nor necessarily in the stories they tell. Jongleurs were typically the object of churchmen's polemic, but were they vulgar tempters or simply competitors with a broader repertoire? Did allegory necessarily recur to systems of sacral coded meaning? Narrative often emerges as the key to a mediation across these boundaries, and its performance as the space in which meaning was transported and interchanged. Each of these three papers will explore a different aspect of this interchange.