IMC 2021: Sessions
Session 1606: Illness as Metaphor in the Middle Ages, II
Thursday 8 July 2021, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences |
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| Organiser: | Krzysztof Nowak, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków |
| Moderator/Chair: | Krzysztof Nowak, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków |
| Paper 1606-a | As a Monster and as a Sick Body: Illnesses of the corpus reipublicae in Medieval Discourses on Government (Language: English) Index terms: Philosophy, Political Thought |
| Paper 1606-b | Suffering and Deformed Bodies in Old English Medical Recipes (British Library, Royal MS 12 D XVII) (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Medicine |
| Paper 1606-c | 'Infirmitates corporis, infirmitates animae': Sin as Illness in Polish Medieval Sermons (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Sermons and Preaching |
| Abstract | Contrary to what Susan Sonntag hoped, we will not be liberated from metaphors of illness anytime soon. Long before the pandemic, the imagery of disease had been employed to express uninhibited nature of emotions or to explain social processes. All too often, though, it has been used to exclude, to stigmatize the Other and to justify violence. A critical analysis of medieval metaphors may help us in understanding how our language is shaped by its remote past. This session brings together scholars investigating the use of the figure of disease in political writing, medical recipes, and sermons. |