IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 651: Dis/Ability in the Medieval North, II

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:	Disability before Disability, University of Iceland, Reykjavík / Icelandic Research Fund
Organisers:	Chris Crocker, Faculty of Icelandic & Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Iceland, Reykjavík Yoav Tirosh, Faculty of Icelandic & Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Iceland, Reykjavík
Moderator/Chair:	Chris Crocker, Faculty of Icelandic & Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Iceland, Reykjavík
Paper 651-a	Emotional Paralysis as a Specific Phenomenon of Old Norse Literature (Language: English) Marie Novotná, Fakulta humanitních studií, Univerzita Karlova, Praha Index terms: Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Medicine, Mentalities
Paper 651-b	Travelled yet Troubled: When a Good King Goes Mad (Language: English) Judith Higman, Darwin College University of Cambridge Index terms: Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Medicine, Mentalities, Social History
Paper 651-c	'Svartir ok furðu ljótir': Unusual Bodies in Geirmundar þáttr heljarskinns and Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka (Language: English) Katherine Marie Olley, St Hilda's College University of Oxford Index terms: Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Mentalities, Social History, Women's Studies
Abstract	These sessions explore disability in the medieval North as a multi-factorial phenomenon. They make use of the concepts of 'embodied difference' and/or 'marked or atypical bodies' as they do not imply pre-defined notions of disability. The body is seen as something that materialises and translates physical, psychic, and intellectual differences in ways that societies identify them as deviations from what is considered 'normal' and/or 'able-bodied' in specific cultural and/or social contexts. Within this framework, the papers deal with archaeological, literary and historical evidence, and engage with methodological challenges involved in researching disability, and accordingly also ability, in the Middle Ages.