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IMC 2022: Sessions

Session 317: Lines in the Sand: Ecotones and Polity in Medieval Literature

Monday 4 July 2022, 16.30-18.00

Organisers:Aylin Malcolm, Department of English, University of Pennsylvania
Andrew Richmond, Department of English, Ohio State University
Moderator/Chair:Andrew Richmond, Department of English, Ohio State University
Paper 317-aMist as a Mode of Cohabitation in the Mabinogion
(Language: English)
Catrin Haberfield, Department of English, Stanford University
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Language and Literature - Celtic
Paper 317-bThe Genoese and the Canary Islands: From the Fortunate Isles to the Sugar Plantation, 1478-1510
(Language: English)
Andrés Mesa Guarin, Facoltà di Scienze della Comunicazione Università degli studi di Teramo
Index terms: Economics - Trade, Geography and Settlement Studies
Paper 317-cPiers Plowman: Landscapes, Bodies, Dreams, and Texts
(Language: English)
Carolyn B. Anderson, Department of English, University of Wyoming
Index terms: Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Language and Literature - Middle English, Social History
Paper 317-d'Like an ocean monster risen to breathe': The Shifting Sands, Flesh, and Waters of Ravenser Odd
(Language: English)
Emily Robinson, Department of Politics, University of Sussex
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Maritime and Naval Studies
Abstract

Transitional environments have long formed the foundations for political and social boundaries, and in turn have been claimed to demonstrate the natural legitimacy of these borders and the institutions they define. Yet medieval literature, art, and popular culture overflows with depictions of such ecotones - water to land, mountain to plain, forest to field - that test both the permanence and permeability of the categories and divisions humans impose on their surroundings (and themselves). The papers on this panel thus examine the diverse ecological boundaries highlighted in medieval texts, particularly works that defy modern categories of genre, nationality, religion, and/or audience.