IMC 2024: Sessions
Session 1020: Classics in Crises / Crises in Classics
Wednesday 3 July 2024, 09:00-10:30
| Organisers: | Jacqueline M. Burek, Department of English, George Mason University, Virginia Ivo Wolsing, Instituut voor Geschiedenis, Universiteit Leiden |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Jacqueline M. Burek, Department of English, George Mason University, Virginia |
| Paper 1020-a | Crisis of Faith in the Consolation of Philosophy (Book 1, Meter 5): Classical Synthesis as Penance in Song and Poetry (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin and Learning (The Classical Inheritance) |
| Paper 1020-b | Virgil Undermined?: Proba's Cento in Early Medieval England (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin and Learning (The Classical Inheritance) |
| Paper 1020-c | Felix erat stadium illa sub etate: A Crisis of Learning in the 12th-Century 'Renaissance'? (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin and Learning (The Classical Inheritance) |
| Paper 1020-d | Crises and Catha: Classical Influences on Later Medieval Irish Battle Tales (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Celtic, Language and Literature - Latin and Learning (The Classical Inheritance) |
| Abstract | Literary and cultural production is often driven by a sense of urgency, a need to deal with, or create, crises. Many turn to literature for comfort, inspiration, and wisdom when facing cultural, environmental, institutional, personal, political, religious, or social upheavals. Furthermore, cultural conflicts often manifest in debates over the propriety and acceptability of certain kinds of literature. Because of its status and authority in the Middle Ages, classical literature was especially likely to be a site of contestation, inspiration, resilience, resistance, or solace during many kinds of crisis. This panel examines the role of individual classical texts and the general idea of ‘classical literature’ in medieval crises of various kinds. How did the cultural cache of classical literature in the Middle Ages amplify such tendencies? Which classical writers or events attracted the most attention during crises? What emotions or circumstances prompted those comparisons? How might classical literature have influenced which kinds of conflicts were labeled ‘crises’? When did unrest in the ‘real world’ lead to the perception of ‘crisis’ in the study of classical literature? What cultural shifts resulted in a feeling that the study of classical literature was itself in crisis? How did the materiality of manuscripts contribute to this sense of crisis? |