Medieval Boundaries and Borders II: Thresholds of Agency

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Organizer Name

Axel E. W. Müller

Organizer Affiliation

Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Presider Name

Emilia Jamroziak

Presider Affiliation

Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Paper Title 1

Scottish Identity and the Ethics of War in English Chronicles, 1327–77

Presenter 1 Name

Trevor Russell Smith

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Paper Title 2

Border Lordship, Communication, and Aristocratic Sociability in Eleventh- and Early Twelfth-Century Northeastern Brittany

Presenter 2 Name

Regan Eby

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Boston College

Paper Title 3

Imagining Bureaucratic Identity and Agency in Twelfth-Century British Court Criticism

Presenter 3 Name

Danielle Bradley

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Rutgers Univ.

Paper Title 4

The (In)Articulate Sufferer: Lameness, Pain, and the Non-Human Patient in Later Medieval Horse-Medicine Treatises

Presenter 4 Name

Sunny Harrison

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Start Date

11-5-2017 3:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1340

Description

This session explores the construction and interpretation of agency across boundaries in a variety of medieval texts. It considers how the traversal of boundaries can help interpret medieval ideas about agency. Approaching agency can complicate categories which are often thought to be stable, such as gender or class, and help to challenge received notions of historical structures and change, especially as they pertain to underrepresented groups. Papers in this session consider how medieval texts engage with issues of agency, whether or not described explicitly. Historical narratives use divine will and predestination to describe major events, complicating the idea of agency, especially against those that focus on individual achievement.

Axel E. W. Müller