IMC 2026: Sessions
Session 207: Representations of Gender and Power in Written Sources
Monday 6 July 2026, 14:15-15:45
| Organiser: | IMC Programming Committee |
|---|---|
| Moderator/Chair: | Wendy J. Turner, Department of History, Anthropology & Philosophy, Augusta University, Georgia |
| Paper 207-a | Sex and Saxo: European Networks and Shaping Women in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Latin, Women's Studies |
| Paper 207-b | Conflicting Encounters and Clashes in the Mirror of Time: Women in the Light of Previously Unpublished Records of Libri citationum et sententiarum from Late Medieval Moravia (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Law, Local History, Women's Studies |
| Paper 207-c | 'Bendith Taliesin': Reinterpreting the Poet as Spouse of the Patron in Late Medieval Wales (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Celtic |
| Abstract | Paper 207-a: Twelfth-century Danish cleric Saxo Grammaticus composed Gesta Danorum not simply to record Denmark’s past, but to shape it, crafting a literary history that celebrated Danish kingship, Christian virtue, and national identity under Valdemar I. Drawing from an expansive network of Latin and vernacular texts, Norse legendary material, and oral tradition, Saxo reworked his sources to serve the ideological goals of his time. This paper examines how Saxo engaged with literary and ideological networks across Europe to craft complex female figures that reflect classical exemplarity, Christian morality, and the social tensions of his own time. By tracing Saxo’s adaptation of models from Latin historiography, biblical narrative, and courtly romance, the paper demonstrates how his female characters, whether warriors, queens, or seductresses, embody contemporary anxieties about gender, authority, and the fragility of social order. In doing so, Gesta Danorum participates in a wider medieval discourse on power, morality, and the place of women within both history and political thought. Paper 207-b: The paper attempts to outline the position of women at the Provincial Court in Moravia in litigation cases by studying the so far unpublished records of the manuscripts of Libri citationum et sententiarum from the end of the Middle Ages. The critical edition of these yet unpublished late medieval manuscripts is currently being prepared by the author. The presentation will analyse the summons in terms of their content, the role of time in court proceedings, as well as the various ways in which disputes were brought to an end. The paper will conclude by presenting some interesting cases, such as theft of valuables, defections of subjects and even a lawsuit for killing a subject. Paper 207-c: Medieval Welsh praise poetry features a trope in which the poet uses amatory language to describe his patron as a lover or spouse. Especially prominent in the late medieval poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym and Guto’r Glyn, these poets nevertheless consider themselves and this pseudo-romantic relationship as part of a longstanding poetic tradition. Dafydd ap Gwilym invokes ‘the blessing of Taliesin’ on his patron Ifor Hael, placing their relationship alongside that of his legendary predecessor and conjuring images of an early heroic age. As part of a project exploring the roots and development of this trope in medieval Welsh poetry, this paper examines the ways these two poets use romantic language to place themeselves in dialogue with their own imagined past and reinterpret earlier Welsh poetic traditions. |