Queering Eden

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages (SSHMA)

Organizer Name

Graham N. Drake

Organizer Affiliation

SUNY-Geneseo

Presider Name

Graham N. Drake

Paper Title 1

It’s Adam and Steve in the End: Medieval Wales as Apocalyptic Eden

Presenter 1 Name

Stephen Yandell

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Xavier Univ.

Paper Title 2

Queering Eden in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale

Presenter 2 Name

Tison Pugh

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of Central Florida

Paper Title 3

How Does Your Garden Grow? Eden and the Virgin in Gonzalo de Berceo's Milagros de nuestra señora

Presenter 3 Name

Felipe E. Rojas

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Chicago State Univ.

Start Date

15-5-2015 3:30 PM

Session Location

Valley II Garneau Lounge

Description

Medieval fascination with Eden spans multiple scholarly fields: literature, theology, and the visual arts. Representing not merely creation, but also rigidly bifurcated categories (male/female, human/animal), Genesis' walled garden anchors all other biblical narratives, and Adam-and-Eve-as-Ur-couple has generated exegetical demonizing of same-sex desire and gender non-conformity. While Edenic imagery defends the rigidity of labels and boundaries, it ironically announces multiple kinds of queerness: the same feminine garden (nature unleashed) symbolizes masculine control (nature contained); humanity's utopian paradise introduces evil to the world; the garden of the tree of life contains a tree of knowledge of good and evil. This panel, then, explores a largely overlooked topic in queer studies.

Graham N. Drake