Women and Authority in the Global Middle Ages
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Zina Petersen
Organizer Affiliation
Brigham Young Univ.
Presider Name
Zina Petersen
Paper Title 1
The Book and Women's Authority in Premodern Korea
Presenter 1 Name
SeoKyung Han
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Binghamton Univ.
Paper Title 2
Women's Authority in Shota Rusaveli's The Man in the Panther Skin
Presenter 2 Name
Bert Beynen
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Temple Univ.
Paper Title 3
Representations of Ordained Women in Early Christian Mosaics
Presenter 3 Name
Nancy Ross
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Dixie State Univ.
Paper Title 4
A Virgin Forespeca: Mary as Advocate in the Old English Advent Lyrics
Presenter 4 Name
Arendse Lund
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Univ. of California-Berkeley
Paper Title 5
Errantry and Violence among the Women of Le haut livre du Graal: Perlsevaus
Presenter 5 Name
Kate Koppy
Presenter 5 Affiliation
Purdue Univ.
Start Date
11-5-2014 10:30 AM
Session Location
Schneider 1220
Description
The concept of authority is elusive and context-specific. For a medieval artist or thinker, “auctoritas” was the necessary literary or artistic precedent that lent credibility to one’s own products. Authority can simply be power, given or taken; it can be an abstract collection of permissions, as in the authority to govern or to participate in certain ritual roles, or it can mean the weight of importance attached to knowledge, training or education. If authority is transferred via rite of passage within a system, as in consecration or ordination for religions, or appointment, coronation or inauguration for government, then “authority” is the end product of a speech act.
In systems with gendered opportunities that include or rely upon authority, women have traditionally been excluded from the structures of power, or if included, have been given extenuating or unusual rights, even granted a sort of “honorary male” status in order to wield the authority necessary for their fulfilling the situational requirements (e.g. Elizabeth I’s declaration that she had the heart and stomach of a king).
This session calls for papers exploring the notions of “authority” pertaining to women in the Middle Ages. Excluded from the communities of social or religious power, some individual women nevertheless wielded authority. How? How is it that the Magdalene is the Apostle to the apostles; how is it that female medieval mystics were heard, sometimes to be honored as “authoritative” and other times so feared as to be punished or executed? Though these examples are from Western Christianity, we invite and encourage papers about women from other traditions and places as well.
Zina Petersen
Women and Authority in the Global Middle Ages
Schneider 1220
The concept of authority is elusive and context-specific. For a medieval artist or thinker, “auctoritas” was the necessary literary or artistic precedent that lent credibility to one’s own products. Authority can simply be power, given or taken; it can be an abstract collection of permissions, as in the authority to govern or to participate in certain ritual roles, or it can mean the weight of importance attached to knowledge, training or education. If authority is transferred via rite of passage within a system, as in consecration or ordination for religions, or appointment, coronation or inauguration for government, then “authority” is the end product of a speech act.
In systems with gendered opportunities that include or rely upon authority, women have traditionally been excluded from the structures of power, or if included, have been given extenuating or unusual rights, even granted a sort of “honorary male” status in order to wield the authority necessary for their fulfilling the situational requirements (e.g. Elizabeth I’s declaration that she had the heart and stomach of a king).
This session calls for papers exploring the notions of “authority” pertaining to women in the Middle Ages. Excluded from the communities of social or religious power, some individual women nevertheless wielded authority. How? How is it that the Magdalene is the Apostle to the apostles; how is it that female medieval mystics were heard, sometimes to be honored as “authoritative” and other times so feared as to be punished or executed? Though these examples are from Western Christianity, we invite and encourage papers about women from other traditions and places as well.
Zina Petersen