Monsters I: Haunting the Middle Ages

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Monsters: The Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory and Practical Application (MEARCSTAPA)

Organizer Name

Asa Simon Mittman, Sarah Alison Miller

Organizer Affiliation

California State Univ.-Chico, Duquesne Univ.

Presider Name

Thea Cervone

Presider Affiliation

Univ. of Southern California

Paper Title 1

The Mysterious Case of the Ghost Who Was Not There

Presenter 1 Name

Amy Amendt-Raduege

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Whatcom Community College

Paper Title 2

Kinship with Ghosts: The Reappearing Dead and Purgatory in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries

Presenter 2 Name

Caitlin Saraphis

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of North Carolina-Greensboro

Paper Title 3

Mere Dead Things: Transi Tombs, Lollards, and the Haunting of Sculpture

Presenter 3 Name

Marian Bleeke

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Cleveland State Univ.

Start Date

10-5-2013 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1360

Description

This panel proposes to explore those monstrous figures that haunt the borders between the living and the dead: ghosts, revenants, animated corpses and skeletons. What do these figures reveal about the porous boundaries between life and death, soul and body? What do they communicate about the relationship between haunting, trauma and memory? How is haunting associated with space, whether that space be a geographical location, a physical structure, a fantasized realm, or human consciousness? How were these figures depicted in art and material culture? How might monster studies be considered a haunted domain? How might the Middle Ages be considered a haunted age?

Asa S. Mittman