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IMC 2022: Sessions

Session 214: In the Middle of What?: Period Boundaries in Medieval Studies, I

Monday 4 July 2022, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Ceræ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval & Early Modern Studies
Organiser:Gwendolyne Knight, Historiska institutionen, Stockholms Universitet
Moderator/Chair:Matthew Firth, College of Humanities Arts & Social Sciences Flinders University Adelaide
Paper 214-aThe De-Romanization of the Early Middle Ages: Recontextualizing Post-Roman Britain and Italy
(Language: English)
Katrina Knight, Department of History, Emory University, Atlanta
Index terms: Administration, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 214-bLate Medieval Piety for the Early Modern Reader: Margery Kempe in Pepwell's Benyamyn Anthology
(Language: English)
Brenda A. Luies, Department of English, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Lay Piety, Printing History, Women's Studies
Paper 214-cA Heap of Sand through the Hourglass: Historical Periodisation and the Sorites Paradox
(Language: English)
Samuel Cardwell, Centre for Medieval Studies University of Toronto
Index terms: Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Philosophy
Abstract

This session challenges the boundaries of periodisation applied both to and within the field of 'Medieval Studies'. The first paper probes the complex relationship between the concepts of the 'medieval and the 'modern', and while the second paper examines and problematises the internal boundary between Old and Middle English, its implications also probe this relationship. The final paper applies the Sorites paradox to the problem of periodisation, and explores the potential of vagueness as a solution.