The Decadent Fifteenth Century

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Spencer Strub, Taylor Cowdery

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of California-Berkeley, Harvard Univ.

Presider Name

Taylor Cowdery

Paper Title 1

Mere Externalism

Presenter 1 Name

Shannon Gayk

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Indiana Univ.-Bloomington

Paper Title 2

Children of Decadence: Education, Politics, and Abuse in the Writings of Peter Idley and Stephen Scrope

Presenter 2 Name

Matthew Giancarlo

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of Kentucky

Paper Title 3

Tragedy and Decadence

Presenter 3 Name

Maura Nolan

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of California-Berkeley

Paper Title 4

Response

Presenter 4 Name

Robert J. Meyer-Lee

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Indiana Univ.-South Bend

Start Date

15-5-2015 1:30 PM

Session Location

Bernhard 208

Description

This panel invites a reconsideration of fifteenth-century decadence. Questions to be

considered might include: how and why might decadence be a valid term for

describing fifteenth century literature? What do we gain by rethinking the

fifteenth century’s sense of its own belatedness under the rubric of decadence? Is

there a “subtle and delicate sweetness” to fifteenth century literature?

Conversely, is there still room for a critical discussion of decay and decline, even

against the new consensus? What place does decadence have within the current

‘aesthetic turn’ of Middle English studies, a turn that has been particularly

productive in its reassessment of writers such as Lydgate?

Spencer Strub