The Beast with Two Backs
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Monsters: The Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory and Practical Application (MEARCSTAPA)
Organizer Name
Asa Simon Mittman, Jacqueline Stuhmiller
Organizer Affiliation
California State Univ.-Chico, Univ. of California-Berkeley
Presider Name
Jacqueline Stuhmiller
Paper Title 1
Beastly Desires: Heteronormative Correctives in Marie de France's Guigemar, Bisclavret, and Yonec
Presenter 1 Name
L. Kip Wheeler
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Carson-Newman Univ.
Paper Title 2
Bestiality, Bodies, and Boundaries in Medieval Scandinavia
Presenter 2 Name
Christine Ekholst
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Guelph
Paper Title 3
Show Us Your Naughty Bits: Signs of Erasure in Monstrously Erotic Mélusine Images
Presenter 3 Name
Lydia Zeldenrust
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Queen Mary, Univ. of London
Start Date
15-5-2016 8:30 AM
Session Location
Schneider 1160
Description
According to medieval religious mores and doctrines, married heterosexual couples were only allowed to have sex in certain positions, under certain circumstances, and for certain reasons. Any sexual practices that did not conform to these strict rules were sinful and beastly – in a word, monstrous. MEARCSTAPA invites papers that are occupied with monstrous medieval sex, broadly interpreted. Possible topics could range from illicit unions, nonnormative sexual positions, and sexual violence all the way to what we would today consider to be “paraphilias,” including teratophilia (a sexual attraction to monsters or the monstrous) itself. Sources of monstrous sex might include records of homosexual relationships, legal records regarding marriage with intersex individuals, prostitution, sexual acts associated with witchcraft, possible cases of child abuse, and punishments meted out in penitential manuals, the sexual play within fabliaux, charivaris, Carnival, and the representation of all manners of couplings in the images of Gothic marginalia, carved misericords, and other sites of visual play.
What acts were defined as “monstrous,” and was this definition consistent across or within cultures? How did people describe, explain, excuse, punish, and/or celebrate sexual monstrosity? Was monstrous sex always depicted negatively, or was it sometimes seen as benign or even positive?
The Beast with Two Backs
Schneider 1160
According to medieval religious mores and doctrines, married heterosexual couples were only allowed to have sex in certain positions, under certain circumstances, and for certain reasons. Any sexual practices that did not conform to these strict rules were sinful and beastly – in a word, monstrous. MEARCSTAPA invites papers that are occupied with monstrous medieval sex, broadly interpreted. Possible topics could range from illicit unions, nonnormative sexual positions, and sexual violence all the way to what we would today consider to be “paraphilias,” including teratophilia (a sexual attraction to monsters or the monstrous) itself. Sources of monstrous sex might include records of homosexual relationships, legal records regarding marriage with intersex individuals, prostitution, sexual acts associated with witchcraft, possible cases of child abuse, and punishments meted out in penitential manuals, the sexual play within fabliaux, charivaris, Carnival, and the representation of all manners of couplings in the images of Gothic marginalia, carved misericords, and other sites of visual play.
What acts were defined as “monstrous,” and was this definition consistent across or within cultures? How did people describe, explain, excuse, punish, and/or celebrate sexual monstrosity? Was monstrous sex always depicted negatively, or was it sometimes seen as benign or even positive?