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IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 1308: Breast Rules: Motherhood and Breastfeeding in the Middle Ages, IV - Breastfeeding in Art and Literature

Wednesday 7 July 2021, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:University of Cyprus
Organisers:Stavroula Constantinou, Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, University of Cyprus, Nicosia
Aspasia Skouroumouni Stavrinou, Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies University of Cyprus Nicosia
Moderator/Chair:Stavroula Constantinou, Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, University of Cyprus, Nicosia
Paper 1308-aBreastfeeding in the Greek Anthology
(Language: English)
Maria Christodoulou, Independent Scholar Cyprus
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Greek
Paper 1308-bBreastfeeding in Byzantine Art: Aspects of Materiality and Realia
(Language: English)
Mati Meyer, Department of Literature, Language & Arts, Open University of Israel, Raanana
Index terms: Art History - General, Byzantine Studies, Daily Life, Gender Studies
Paper 1308-cSt Nicholas Refuses His Mother's Breast: Some Reflections on Iconography between Byzantium and the West
(Language: English)
Irene Caracciolo, Dipartimento di Storia dell'arte e Spettacolo, Università degli Studi di Roma 'La Sapienza'
Index terms: Art History - General, Gender Studies, Hagiography, Lay Piety
Abstract

Taking as its point of departure Susanne Dixon's dictum: 'The biology of infancy is universal, but the human perceptions of it and what it requires are socially conditioned and subject to historical change' (The Roman Mother (1988): 129), this series of sessions aims at contributing to the 'breastfeeding turn', by promoting the investigation of the various aspects of the strong affinities between woman - as mother and nurse - and her lactating breast, as well as the social, ideological, and medical meanings and uses of motherhood, childbirth, and breastfeeding, and their visual and literary representations in the Middle Ages.