Oathtaking and Oathbreaking in Middle and Early Modern English Literature

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Laura Clark

Organizer Affiliation

Baylor Univ.

Presider Name

Laura Clark

Paper Title 1

Camelot, Cornwall, and the Pentecostal Oath: Regenerating and Degenerating Words and Deeds in Malory's Morte Darthur

Presenter 1 Name

Elizabeth Fredericks

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Valparaiso Univ.

Paper Title 2

"Here is my glove": Introductory Speech Acts and Trial By Combat in Le Morte Darthur

Presenter 2 Name

Aubrey Morris

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Baylor Univ.

Paper Title 3

Murderous Brigands and Cannibal Jokes: Swearing and Equivocal Oaths in the Second Shepherds' Play

Presenter 3 Name

Mark Burde

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Paper Title 4

Under the Grene Wode Tre: The Trystell Tree, the Truth Test, and Yeomen Profit in A Gest of Robin Hode

Presenter 4 Name

Megan Woosley-Goodman

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Francis Marion Univ.

Start Date

14-5-2017 8:30 AM

Session Location

Schneider 1335

Description

The purpose of this session is to examine the role of oaths as performative speech acts in Middle and Early Modern English literary texts. The session will include papers on the social context of oathtaking, on the formulae of oaths, on the role of ritual and sacrament in formal oathtaking, and the effects of oathbreaking in Malory's Morte d'Arthur, the Second Shepherd's Play and A Gest of Robin Hode.

Laura Clark