IMC 2026: Sessions

Session 1519: Premodern Timeliness and Timelessness, I: Timeliness and Timelessness in/of Literary and Historic Figures

Thursday 9 July 2026, 09:00-10:30

Sponsor:	CERÆ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Organiser:	Michele Seah, School of Humanities, Creative Industries & Social Sciences, University of Newcastle, New South Wales
Moderator/Chair:	Matthew Firth, College of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide
Paper 1519-a	Not Just Alliteration: Ent, Ekphrasis, and Elegy in Beowulf (Language: English) Kevin Waldron, Signum University, New Hampshire Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Literacy and Orality
Paper 1519-b	(De)Mythologising the Past in Laȝamon's Brut (Language: English) Melanie Socrates, School of Information, Journalism & Communication, University of Sheffield Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Literacy and Orality
Paper 1519-c	King Solomon Moving across Time: Delivering Power (Language: English) Karen Knudson, Olivet Nazarene University, Illinois Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Literacy and Orality
Paper 1519-d	A Pagan Hero for a Christian Audience: Images of Alexander the Great in Old French Illuminated Manuscripts, 13th-14th Centuries (Language: English) Blanche Darbord, Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Literacy and Orality
Abstract	Time is a construct with notoriously blurry definitions and boundaries. The artificiality of time can evoke anything from comforting nostalgia to worrying anachronism. This session is one of three sessions that deal with the unfocused and unreal aspects of premodern temporality, looking at a range of ways in which time can be constructed, depicted, examined, and deconstructed. The sessions focus on a variety of mediums and canvases, including literature, legend, history and historiography, architecture, and landscape.