Skip to main content

IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 1806: Sessions in Honour of Stephen D. White, IV: Medieval Emotions

Thursday 8 July 2021, 16.30-18.00

Organisers:Richard E. Barton, Department of History, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Tracey L. Billado, Department of History, Queens College, City University of New York
Moderator/Chair:John Hudson, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Paper 1806-aStaging the Feud in Medieval German Narratives: Narrative Strategies for the Representation of Vengeance and Dispute in Medieval German Literature and the Legacy of Stephen D. White
(Language: English)
Christopher Liebtag Miller, Berlin Program for Advanced German & European Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
Index terms: Mentalities, Social History
Paper 1806-bThe 'Politics of Anger' in the Cult of St Guthlac of Crowland Abbey
(Language: English)
Kate E. McGrath, Deaprtment of History, Central Connecticut State University
Index terms: Hagiography, Mentalities
Paper 1806-cA Brave Knight, Angry Duchess, and Weeping Lord: Emotional Discourses in Girart de Vienne
(Language: English)
Hailey Ogle, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies / School of Modern Languages, University of St. Andrews
Index terms: Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Mentalities
Abstract

The fourth of the sessions in honor of Stephen D. White is inspired by White's important work on the politics of medieval emotions and their display. Miller examines the legacy and continued significance of White's work on emotional 'scripts' within the context of medieval secular literature from outside the context of White's work on Anglo-Norman materials. McGrath demonstrates how the transformation of the legend of St Guthlac in the 12th and 13th centuries allows us to understand the role of anger and divine vengeance in the veneration of medieval saints, as well as the role played by that transformation in monastic communities' adaptation to changing circumstances. Through a case study of a 12th-century chanson de geste, Ogle argues that 'emotional discourses' discernible in such texts reveal important realities about how medieval people learned normative emotional behavior.