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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 818: Medieval Catastrophe and Community

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:Laura K. Morreale, Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University, New York
Moderator/Chair:Emma Campbell, Department of French Studies, University of Warwick
Paper 818-aThe Earthfall: A Landslide and Its Consequences in Medieval Scandinavia
(Language: English)
Anton Larsson, Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur Stockholms universitet
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Geography and Settlement Studies, Local History
Paper 818-bEmotional Boundaries of Medieval Italy: Historiographic Responses to Catastrophe
(Language: English)
Laura K. Morreale, Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University, New York
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Italian, Local History
Paper 818-c'Las grans tribulacios': Disaster and Community in the Late Medieval Midi
(Language: English)
Brian Forman, Department of History Northwestern University
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Local History, Religious Life
Abstract

Although natural disasters - an earthquake, flood, or plague - and man-made catastrophes - defeat in battle, bad government, or factional discord - were often presented in medieval sources as phenomena that wrought destruction and chaos, they can also be understood as catalysts for creating communities with a set of well-drawn boundaries. These boundaries might be jurisdictional or administrative, confessional or kin-based, local or transregional, real or imagined, and expressed in image, text, or action. This panel will consider the role of catastrophe in creating or solidifying group boundaries and investigate the dynamic of disaster and community demarcation from three medieval settings.