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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 745: Social Boundaries in Scandinavia and Iceland, III: Hierarchical Boundaries

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 14.15-15.45

Organiser:Alexander Wilson, Department of English Studies, Durham University
Moderator/Chair:Gwendolyne Knight, Historiska institutionen, Stockholms Universitet
Paper 745-aPushing the Boundaries: Advice as Control for Younger Men in the Íslendingasögur
(Language: English)
Kimberly Anderson, Department of Anglo-Saxon Norse & Celtic University of Cambridge
Index terms: Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Social History
Paper 745-bThe Gender-Contingent Boundaries of Anger in the Íslendingasögur
(Language: English)
George C. Manning, Faculty of English University of Oxford
Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 745-cGentlemen Who Protest Too Much: Voicing Gendered Boundaries in Old Norse Ljóð
(Language: English)
Annemarie Ferreira, Faculty of English Language & Literature, University of Oxford
Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Mentalities
Abstract

This panel investigates how Old Norse literary sources depict hierarchical boundaries within normative societies in ways that highlight their underlying tensions. Kimberly Anderson interrogates how sagas show younger men manipulating conventional advice-giving practices to challenge standard family dynamics. George Manning reassesses Carol Clover's 'one-sex' model of Old Norse culture by demonstrating how the gendering of emotional responses reflects social perceptions of essential gender distinctions. Annemari Ferreira focuses on speakers of eddic ljóð poetry to explore ways in which gendered voices are used in Old Norse poetic contexts to establish and traverse thresholds, thereby defining and problematising ideas of gender.