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IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 1808: Critical Studies in Old English Masculinities, IV: Embodied Masculinities

Thursday 8 July 2021, 16.30-18.00

Organisers:Caroline R. Batten, Faculty of English Language & Literature, University of Oxford
Gareth Lloyd Evans, St Hilda's College, University of Oxford
Moderator/Chair:Gareth Lloyd Evans, St Hilda's College, University of Oxford
Paper 1808-aThe Universal Male Body and the Problem of Women's Bodies in Old English Medicine
(Language: English)
Dana Oswald, Department of English, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Old English, Medicine
Paper 1808-bBonds of Sinew: Masculine Performance and the Disabled Body in Old English Depictions of Weland
(Language: English)
Caroline R. Batten, Faculty of English Language & Literature, University of Oxford
Index terms: Art History - General, Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Old English
Paper 1808-cThe Cruelty of Men and the Optimism of Dragons: Beowulf's Failed Masculinity
(Language: English)
Basil Price, Department of English, Arizona State University
Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Old English
Abstract

These four linked sessions (and a round table discussion) explore the wide range of masculinities and masculine characters found in Old English texts. We seek to examine early medieval masculinities with same critical scrutiny that has been brought to the study of women and femininities in Old English literature. Each session examines the multiple ways in which masculinity is constructed, performed, and subverted in early English texts, in dialogue with various critical frameworks of gender and sexuality. This session (4 of 4) examines bodies and the idea of the body in dialogue with masculine gender performances in early English texts.