Symposium 2015

27-28 March 2015

Oral practice was a widespread mode of cultural consumption in the Middle Ages. From troubadour chansonniers, the itinerant Japanese biwa hôshi and court poets like the Anglo-Saxon scopas to the carnivalesque festivals of the Feast of Fools, speech and song illuminated the public and private lives of men and women throughout the medieval world. Even in the highly literate codicological culture of scriptoria, hearing and recitation were indispensable tools for understanding and producing the manuscripts we study today.

Download the flyer

Friday, 27 March

All Friday panels are in Wylie Hall 005

8-10:15 a.m. — Registration

8:45-10:15 a.m. — Prophecy and Truth

A joint panel with "Breaking Futures," the IU English Department's annual interdisciplinary graduate conference

Moderator: Kerilyn Harkaway-Krieger

  • "'Is this the promised end? Or image of that horror?': Animal Symbolism and the Apocalyptic End of History in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Prophetiae Merlini," Jennifer Lopatin, English, Indiana University
  • "The Once and Future Kingdom: Macbeth, Prophecy, and the Problem of British Union," Michael Lutz, English, Indiana University
  • "Dead Men Do Tell Tales: Posthumous Messengers in Wace's Roman de Brut," Aidan Gaunt, English, Purdue University

10:30-noon — Fame, Rumor, and Gossip

Moderator: Arwen Taylor

  • "The Wounded Mouth: Sins of the Tongue in the Islamic Hell," Mona Zaki, Drew University
  • "'Don't believe everything you are told': Words and Rumor in Wace's Roman de Brut," Jessica Auz, English, Purdue University
  • "The Onus of the Listener (Boethius and Chaucer's House of Fame)," Logan Quigley, English, Purdue University

1:30-3:00 p.m. — Female Voices

Moderator: Hall Bjørnstad

  • "Two Saints and Eleven Thousand Virgins: Scriptural (Re)presentations and the Female Voice in St. Hildegard of Bingen's Symphonia," Joe Morgan, English, Indiana University
  • "The Voice of Mother Wisdom in Hrotsvit's Sapientia," Miriam Poole, Dept. of Theatre History, Indiana University
  • "¡Canta, Trobaritz!: Voices of Medieval Women Poets," Jocelyn Young, Spanish and Portuguese, Indiana University

3:15-4:40 p.m. — Hearing Objects

Moderator: Erin Sweany

  • "Reassigning Vibrancy: Speaking with Objects in The Dream of Rood," Julie Chamberlin, English, Indiana University
  • "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder: New Perspectives of the Cotton Nero A.x. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Illustrations," Margaret Sheble, English, Purdue University
  • "How to Read a Song: A Case Study from the Codex Manesse," Dennis Dechant, Dept. of Art History, Yale University

7:00 p.m. — Readers Circle

Presidents' Room, University Club, IMU