IMC 2024: Sessions
Session 113: Women in Medieval Germanic Crisis Narratives, I: Women and Crises of Masculinity
Monday 1 July 2024, 11:15-12:45
| Organiser: | Juliane Witte, Philosophische Fakultät - Skandinavistik, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Rebecca Merkelbach, Philosophische Fakultät - Skandinavistik, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen |
| Paper 113-a | 'Just deal with it!': Useful Women and Useless Men in the Íslendingasögur (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Mentalities and Women's Studies |
| Paper 113-b | 'Þu ert it mesta forað': When Women Cause a Crisis for Men (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Scandinavian and Women's Studies |
| Paper 113-c | The Crisis of Women: Masculine Fragility, Nascent Knighthood, and the Female Subject as Arbiter of Male Value in Middle High German Epic (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - German and Women's Studies |
| Abstract | This session explores how women operated during crises in Old Norse and Middle High German literature. The speakers will question the gender norms which are revealed through crises of masculinity. Ambra Ventura will present three case studies from the Íslendingasögur in which women are faced with crises and will questions how gendered expectations affected their ability in addressing them. Juliane Witte will question the use of forað as a monstrous signifier for women who reveal the contradictions at the heart of the patriarchal Old Norse feud culture through examples from the Íslendingasögur and fornaldarsögur. Christopher Miller will explore how masculine identities are destabilized by intervening women in the Middle High German epics Erec and Iwein. |