IMC 2026: Sessions
Session 114: Public Speech and War: The Performativity of Justification Strategies in the Middle Ages
Monday 6 July 2026, 11:15-12:45
| Organiser: | Rudolfs Reinis Vitolins, Vēstures un arheoloģijas nodaļa, Latvijas Universitāte |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Christoph Dartmann, Fachbereich Geschichte, Arbeitsbereich Mittelalter, Universität Hamburg |
| Paper 114-a | Justification Strategies in a Late Medieval Conflict: The Case of a Feud in Osilia, 1532-1536 (Language: English) Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Paper 114-b | Fight, Surrender, or Die?: The Rhetoric of Threat in Public Speech in 15th-Century Livonia (Language: English) Index terms: Charters and Diplomatics, Rhetoric |
| Paper 114-c | Speeches before Battles: Fictional Public Speaking in Medieval Baltic Chronicles (Language: English) Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Rhetoric |
| Abstract | This panel will examine the connection between public speeches and war in the Middle Ages, focusing on the performativity of justification strategies created in texts. Speeches, statements, and ritualized addresses functioned not only as means of persuasion, but also as performative acts aimed at providing justification and rationale for conflicts. The presentations will address the following questions. How did rhetorical forms shape perceptions of war and influence collective memory? How did gestures, place, and ceremonies reinforce or limit verbal justification strategies? How are these justifying passages constructed in chronicles and letters? How are current needs and necessities employed in these speech acts through references to time, memory, and commemoration in justifying military upheaval? The presentations will focus primarily on texts that were created in medieval Livonia or depict events that took place there. |