Romance Friends and (Fr)Enemies

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Usha Vishnuvajjala

Organizer Affiliation

Indiana Univ.-Bloomington

Presider Name

Usha Vishnuvajjala

Paper Title 1

Near and Sometimes Dear: Fr(Enemies) in Le Chevalier aux deux épées

Presenter 1 Name

Kristin L. Burr

Presenter 1 Affiliation

St. Joseph's Univ.

Paper Title 2

Hagiography and Dorigen’s Discontent in The Franklin's Tale

Presenter 2 Name

John Fry

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of Texas-Austin

Paper Title 3

Amis and Amiloun: More than Blood Brothers

Presenter 3 Name

Rachel Levinson-Emley

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of California-Santa Barbara

Paper Title 4

Between Frenemies: Violence as Friendship in Codex Ashmole 61

Presenter 4 Name

Ilan Mitchell-Smith

Presenter 4 Affiliation

California State Univ.-Long Beach

Start Date

11-5-2017 7:30 PM

Session Location

Bernhard 211

Description

Medieval romance abounds with social affinities and antagonisms that interact with each other in unexpected and generative ways. This panel seeks to examine representations of those relationships which might loosely be called friendship or enmity, but especially those relationships in which friendship and enmity overlap or interact with each other. Papers may wish to engage with recent work on emotions and affect in medieval fiction, or on emerging work on the history of emotions. Studies of friendship in medieval romance have, until recently, been largely restricted to readings of socially-sanctioned friendships between men in homosocial communities. This panel seeks to interrogate the genre of romance with respect to the emerging conversations complicating such conceptions of friendship, including such topics as women's friendship, friendship across political and ethnic divides, and friendship that overlaps with enmity or antagonism.

Usha K. Vishnuvajjala