The Crusades through the Nexus of Text and Nonlinguistic Representations
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Texas Medieval Association (TEMA)
Organizer Name
Paul E. Chevedden
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Texas-Austin
Presider Name
Donald J. Kagay
Presider Affiliation
Univ. of Dallas
Paper Title 1
The Crusade's East-West Nexus: Toledo-Tarragona-Rome-Antioch-Jerusalem
Presenter 1 Name
Lawrence J. McCrank
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Independent Scholar
Paper Title 2
The Early Crusades Schematized: From Text to Image
Presenter 2 Name
Paul E. Chevedden
Paper Title 3
Beatus Manuscripts during the Reign of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonor of England: A Response to the Fall of Jerusalem?
Presenter 3 Name
Rose Walker
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Independent Scholar
Start Date
14-5-2017 10:30 AM
Session Location
Bernhard 204
Description
Ernst Cassirer reminds us that our historical knowledge does not start with “things or events,” but with “documents or monuments.” The “documents or monuments” say nothing until they are made to speak through a process of “symbolic reconstruction,” by which the “living form” embodied in the extant traces of the past can be understood in the present. The task of deciphering the symbolic language of “documents and monuments” of the Crusades is not the work of historians alone, but also of literary scholars and those in the non-linguistic fields of study, such as architecture, sculpture, painting, and music. This session explores the relationship between textual evidence pertaining to the Crusades and the nonlinguistic arts relating to the Crusades (e.g. architecture, sculpture, painting, and music), especially new connections that can be made between linguistic and nonlinguistic signifiers of crusading. It also seeks to explore whether the arts in question express a prior linguistic articulation or articulability, or whether these arts express ideas that only later were expressed linguistically.
Paul E. Chevedden
The Crusades through the Nexus of Text and Nonlinguistic Representations
Bernhard 204
Ernst Cassirer reminds us that our historical knowledge does not start with “things or events,” but with “documents or monuments.” The “documents or monuments” say nothing until they are made to speak through a process of “symbolic reconstruction,” by which the “living form” embodied in the extant traces of the past can be understood in the present. The task of deciphering the symbolic language of “documents and monuments” of the Crusades is not the work of historians alone, but also of literary scholars and those in the non-linguistic fields of study, such as architecture, sculpture, painting, and music. This session explores the relationship between textual evidence pertaining to the Crusades and the nonlinguistic arts relating to the Crusades (e.g. architecture, sculpture, painting, and music), especially new connections that can be made between linguistic and nonlinguistic signifiers of crusading. It also seeks to explore whether the arts in question express a prior linguistic articulation or articulability, or whether these arts express ideas that only later were expressed linguistically.
Paul E. Chevedden