Medieval Boundaries and Borders I: Intersecting Identities

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Organizer Name

Axel E. W. Müller

Organizer Affiliation

Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Presider Name

Axel E. W. Müller

Paper Title 1

The Trickster Wife: Transgressing Boundaries and Challenging Binaries in Old French Fabliaux

Presenter 1 Name

Vanessa Wright

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Paper Title 2

Fixed or Fluid Boundaries? Portuguese Attitudes toward African Cultures, Spaces, and Places in the Four Fifteenth-Century Chronicles of Gomes Eanes de Zurara (d. ca. 1474)

Presenter 2 Name

Iona McCleery

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Paper Title 3

Opportunism and (Dis)Honor: Apostasy and Infamy in the Thirteenth-Century Conquest of Majorca

Presenter 3 Name

Ariana Myers

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Princeton Univ.

Paper Title 4

Who's In Charge Here? Border Lords and Central Control in North-Eastern Iberia around the Year 1000

Presenter 4 Name

Jonathan Jarrett

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Start Date

11-5-2017 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1340

Description

This session will consider the ways in which the crossing of boundaries affects personal and group identity in the Middle Ages. Ideas surrounding individual and group identity permeate medieval writing and thought. The crossing of a border challenges or reinforces personal and group identity in a number of ways. The prosecution of war can help to reinforce national identity, or lead to the construction of new and modulated identities. Pilgrimage and crusade developed Christian identity by crossing cultural, political, and geographical boundaries. The literary representation of war also challenges questions about gender identity which can provide new avenues of investigation for considering more historical writings.

Axel E. W. Müller