IMC 2021: Sessions
Session 1316: Earth, Water, Wind, Light: Aspects of Physical and Spiritual Climate in the Poems of the Pearl-Poet
Wednesday 7 July 2021, 16.30-18.00
| Sponsor: | Pearl-Poet Society / Institute for Medieval Studies / School of English, University of Leeds |
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| Organisers: | Catherine J. Batt, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds Jane Beal, Department of English, University of La Verne, California |
| Moderator/Chair: | Catherine J. Batt, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds |
| Paper 1316-a | At the Water's Edge: The Transformation of a Motif from Pearl in the Work of J. R. R. Tolkien (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Medievalism and Antiquarianism |
| Paper 1316-b | The Green World of the Pearl-Poet: Gawain's Links to the Land of Pearls (Language: English) Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Middle English |
| Paper 1316-c | Weather's Punitive Force in the Works of the Pearl-Poet (Language: English) Index terms: Biblical Studies, Language and Literature - Middle English |
| Abstract | The papers in this session address, severally and collectively, the nature and imaginative reach of the Pearl-Poet's treatment, in Middle English, of humanity's encounters with the environment, and all consider aspects of the poems' descriptive art. For Jane Beal, the topos of a waterside encounter in Pearl illuminates our understanding of Tolkien's artistry. Mickey Sweeney considers how Sir Gawain's representation of the fertile land yields new insights into perceptions of the environment and human experience across the genres of history and romance, while Ashley Bartelt's work addresses how, in the Poet's work, the weather registers deeper moral and spiritual assaults on a vulnerable humanity. |