The Life of "I": Biography, Autobiography, and the Self in the Middle Ages
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Program in Medieval Studies, Princeton Univ.
Organizer Name
Sara S. Poor
Organizer Affiliation
Princeton Univ.
Presider Name
Sara S. Poor
Paper Title 1
"Restoring to Me Your Brother's Beauty": Interiority as Hebraica Veritas in Abelard's Planctus
Presenter 1 Name
Ruth Nisse
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Wesleyan Univ.
Paper Title 2
Confessing Nothing: Marguerite Porete's Middle English "I" without "You"
Presenter 2 Name
Amy Conwell
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Toronto
Paper Title 3
Doubling and the Creation of the Female Devotional Self in Late Medieval England
Presenter 3 Name
Elise Wang
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Princeton Univ.
Start Date
14-5-2016 10:00 AM
Session Location
Schneider 1345
Description
From St. Augustine’s profound Confessiones to Margery Kempe’s memorable Boke, it’s resoundingly clear that people in the Middle Ages were a bundle of contradictions. Even so, they understood the importance of self-expression and knew that personal identity is inextricable from aesthetic conventions. New work in the discipline of medieval studies is uncovering exactly what these conventions were, rewriting the history of the self to show that the medieval “I” is the locus of personal and historical dynamics, as well as the occasion for poetic and musical effects. Medieval selves, whether fashioned in texts or monuments, are surprising and even unruly entities and thus demand our attention, not only for what they teach us about medieval people but for what they tell us about ourselves.
The Life of "I": Biography, Autobiography, and the Self in the Middle Ages
Schneider 1345
From St. Augustine’s profound Confessiones to Margery Kempe’s memorable Boke, it’s resoundingly clear that people in the Middle Ages were a bundle of contradictions. Even so, they understood the importance of self-expression and knew that personal identity is inextricable from aesthetic conventions. New work in the discipline of medieval studies is uncovering exactly what these conventions were, rewriting the history of the self to show that the medieval “I” is the locus of personal and historical dynamics, as well as the occasion for poetic and musical effects. Medieval selves, whether fashioned in texts or monuments, are surprising and even unruly entities and thus demand our attention, not only for what they teach us about medieval people but for what they tell us about ourselves.