IMC 2022: Sessions

Session 137: Bordering Adulthood: Adolescence and Youth in Times of Change, I

Monday 4 July 2022, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:	British Academy / Department of History, University College London
Organiser:	Emily J. Ward, Darwin College, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:	Emily J. Ward, Darwin College, University of Cambridge
Paper 137-a	Novices on Trial: Stories of Dominican Youth in the Vitas Fratrum (Language: English) Steven Watts, School of History, University of St Andrews Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Education, Monasticism, Religious Life
Paper 137-b	Youth as a Period of Growth in Felix's Vita Sancti Guthlaci (Language: English) Chiara Giancoli, School of English, University of Nottingham Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 137-c	Adolescence and Social Coercion: Revisiting Jewish Apostasy in Opusculum de sua conversione (Language: English) Pilar B. Rivett, Lincoln College, University of Oxford Index terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Language and Literature - Latin, Religious Life, Social History
Abstract	Adolescence and youth were formative times of change in medieval society. Crisis, transformation, and growth could be very real aspects of young people's lived experience, but they were also central elements in contemporary representations of adolescence and youth, as found in a variety of exemplary stories, literary and performative narratives, historical texts, and didactic works. Moreover, structural changes within medieval communities, cultures, and institutions could also impress themselves with particular strength on those navigating the borders of adulthood. The relationship between youth and change was complicated and multifaceted, as this panel shows by focusing on young novices, saints, and converts between the 8th and 13th centuries.