Dangerous Games: Proscription, Transgression, Control
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris
Organizer Name
Vanina M. Kopp
Organizer Affiliation
Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris
Presider Name
Vanina M. Kopp
Paper Title 1
"De rotunda tabula prohibenda": Squaring the Circle of Medieval Round Tables
Presenter 1 Name
Christopher Berard
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Centre for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Toronto
Paper Title 2
Unstable Identities: Shifting Friends and Enemies in Malory's Book of Sir Tristram
Presenter 2 Name
Whitney Whitaker
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Oklahoma
Paper Title 3
Who's Afraid of the Gambling Devil? Ludic Dangers between Rationalization and Demonization
Presenter 3 Name
Michael Allman Conrad
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Freie Univ. Berlin
Paper Title 4
"Win Sett and All": Violence, Chance, and Social Competition in Early Modern Tennis
Presenter 4 Name
Natalia Khomenko
Presenter 4 Affiliation
York Univ.
Start Date
15-5-2016 8:30 AM
Session Location
Bernhard 210
Description
This session will focus on the dangerous aspects of pre-modern games and their potential for disrupting the medieval boundaries of estate and gender. We welcome papers linking game rules and social norms and examining, on the one hand, the risks inherent in following or resisting the formal rules, and on the other, the specific instances of games deployed to transgress normative boundaries or to reinforce power hierarchies. Social rejection, persecution, or death could follow if games were not played in accordance with the rules defined by authorities, or sometimes if they were played with too much zeal. Both secular and ecclesiastical powers tried to control games by prohibition or close surveillance. The gap between breaking the law outright and pushing against social constraints during a game was very narrow indeed. As a result, records detailing the rules of games and the instances of rules being broken, as well as interdictions against game-playing, present an opportunity to re-examine the accepted components of and challenges to the social and cultural order in the medieval and early modern society.
Vanina M. Kopp
Dangerous Games: Proscription, Transgression, Control
Bernhard 210
This session will focus on the dangerous aspects of pre-modern games and their potential for disrupting the medieval boundaries of estate and gender. We welcome papers linking game rules and social norms and examining, on the one hand, the risks inherent in following or resisting the formal rules, and on the other, the specific instances of games deployed to transgress normative boundaries or to reinforce power hierarchies. Social rejection, persecution, or death could follow if games were not played in accordance with the rules defined by authorities, or sometimes if they were played with too much zeal. Both secular and ecclesiastical powers tried to control games by prohibition or close surveillance. The gap between breaking the law outright and pushing against social constraints during a game was very narrow indeed. As a result, records detailing the rules of games and the instances of rules being broken, as well as interdictions against game-playing, present an opportunity to re-examine the accepted components of and challenges to the social and cultural order in the medieval and early modern society.
Vanina M. Kopp