Blunder (A Roundtable)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
BABEL Working Group
Organizer Name
Eileen A. Joy
Organizer Affiliation
BABEL Working Group
Presider Name
Valerie Vogrin
Presider Affiliation
Peanut Books
Paper Title 1
Blundering at the End in Beowulf
Presenter 1 Name
Mary Kate Hurley
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Yale Univ.
Paper Title 2
The Fruit of Failure
Presenter 2 Name
M. W. Bychowski
Presenter 2 Affiliation
George Washington Univ.
Paper Title 3
Speculations
Presenter 3 Name
Nancy M. Thompson, Maggie Williams
Presenter 3 Affiliation
St. Olaf College, William Paterson Univ.
Paper Title 4
Scribal Blunders, Poetic Wonders: Reports from a Modern-Day Scribe
Presenter 4 Name
David Hadbawnik
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Univ. at Buffalo
Paper Title 5
Slices and Splices
Presenter 5 Name
Marian Bleeke, Anne F. Harris
Presenter 5 Affiliation
Cleveland State Univ., DePauw Univ.
Paper Title 6
Failblog/Fumblr
Presenter 6 Name
Asa Simon Mittman, Shyama Rajendran
Presenter 6 Affiliation
California State Univ.-Chico, George Washington Univ.
Start Date
11-5-2013 3:30 PM
Session Location
Bernhard 158
Description
Then, with chaos and blunders encircling my head, / Let me ponder.~ Oliver Goldsmith, "Retaliation 21"
This roundtable session invites short presentations that would explore medieval texts and other artifacts (which could include philosophy, theology, poems, romances, histories, manuscript illuminations, archaeological goods, music, handbooks, scientific treatises, rules, architecture, etc.), and/or any aspect of scholarship on the Middle Ages, that engage, practically and theoretically, consciously or unconsciously, in blunder and blundering -- defined as confusion, bewilderment, trouble, disturbance, clamour, discomfiture, turmoil, mistakes, stupidity, carelessness, bumbling, errancy, confounding, foolishness, foiling, stumbling, perturbing, mayhem, fracas, and noise. It is hoped that presentations will trace some of the ways in which "blunder" has served as an historical actant, "making things happen" (for good or ill) that could not be anticipated in advance and which (somewhat and somehow) escapes full human control.
Eileen A. Joy
Blunder (A Roundtable)
Bernhard 158
Then, with chaos and blunders encircling my head, / Let me ponder.~ Oliver Goldsmith, "Retaliation 21"
This roundtable session invites short presentations that would explore medieval texts and other artifacts (which could include philosophy, theology, poems, romances, histories, manuscript illuminations, archaeological goods, music, handbooks, scientific treatises, rules, architecture, etc.), and/or any aspect of scholarship on the Middle Ages, that engage, practically and theoretically, consciously or unconsciously, in blunder and blundering -- defined as confusion, bewilderment, trouble, disturbance, clamour, discomfiture, turmoil, mistakes, stupidity, carelessness, bumbling, errancy, confounding, foolishness, foiling, stumbling, perturbing, mayhem, fracas, and noise. It is hoped that presentations will trace some of the ways in which "blunder" has served as an historical actant, "making things happen" (for good or ill) that could not be anticipated in advance and which (somewhat and somehow) escapes full human control.
Eileen A. Joy