The Composite City
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Thomas Devaney
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Rochester
Presider Name
Thomas Devaney
Paper Title 1
Discussing London and Londoners within the Angevin Regnum Anglorum
Presenter 1 Name
Katherine Har
Presenter 1 Affiliation
St Edmund Hall, Univ. of Oxford
Paper Title 2
"Hayll and welcome of all abowte / To owre ceté": Constructing Spaces and Urban Identities through Drama in Late Medieval York
Presenter 2 Name
Meisha Lohmann
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Binghamton Univ.
Start Date
11-5-2014 10:30 AM
Session Location
Schneider 1280
Description
Despite the efforts of many municipal corporations to present their cities as unified and harmonious, medieval urban communities were seldom homogenous in either composition or outlook. City dwellers might subscribe to a variety of corporate identities—including those based on occupation, gender, religion, origin, or status—of which their residence was only one, and not necessarily the most important. Although scholars have long recognized that interaction between such groups was a core aspect of urban experience, more recent work in a variety of disciplines has expanded our knowledge of the ways in which civic life was conditioned by a range of spatial, cultural, social, and economic hybridities. These interactions and borrowings (as well as attempts to control or suppress them) created dynamic local power structures and fostered new modes of identity formation while transforming contemporary understandings of urban society. The papers on this panel examine, from an interdisciplinary perspective, how multiple communities co-existed and competed in York, London, Rouen, and Montpellier.
Thomas Devaney
The Composite City
Schneider 1280
Despite the efforts of many municipal corporations to present their cities as unified and harmonious, medieval urban communities were seldom homogenous in either composition or outlook. City dwellers might subscribe to a variety of corporate identities—including those based on occupation, gender, religion, origin, or status—of which their residence was only one, and not necessarily the most important. Although scholars have long recognized that interaction between such groups was a core aspect of urban experience, more recent work in a variety of disciplines has expanded our knowledge of the ways in which civic life was conditioned by a range of spatial, cultural, social, and economic hybridities. These interactions and borrowings (as well as attempts to control or suppress them) created dynamic local power structures and fostered new modes of identity formation while transforming contemporary understandings of urban society. The papers on this panel examine, from an interdisciplinary perspective, how multiple communities co-existed and competed in York, London, Rouen, and Montpellier.
Thomas Devaney