Theorizing Orientalism in the Middle Ages (A Roundtable)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Sierra Lomuto, Shokoofeh Rajabzadeh
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Pennsylvania, Univ. of California-Berkeley
Presider Name
Sierra Lomuto
Paper Title 1
Introductory Remarks: What Is Orientalism?
Presenter 1 Name
Shokoofeh Rajabzadeh
Paper Title 2
Charlemagne, Chris Kyle, and Cross-Temporal Orientalism
Presenter 2 Name
Leila K. Norako
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Washington-Seattle
Paper Title 3
The Cloth as Skin: Reading the Two Women in Emaré
Presenter 3 Name
Lydia Yaitsky Kertz
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Fordham Univ.
Paper Title 4
Criticism through Deviation: Examining Richard of Devizes's Chronicon, Chaucer's Prioress's Tale and the Jewish Ritual Murder Plot
Presenter 4 Name
Dylan Thompson
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Univ. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Paper Title 5
East Teaches West: Orientalism and Its Alternatives in the Polychronicon
Presenter 5 Name
Stephanie Pentz
Presenter 5 Affiliation
Northwestern Univ.
Paper Title 6
Respondent
Presenter 6 Name
Tamar M. Boyadjian
Presenter 6 Affiliation
Michigan State Univ.
Start Date
11-5-2017 1:30 PM
Session Location
Sangren 1910
Description
When Edward Said rooted orientalism’s “formal existence [in] the decision of the Church council of Vienna in 1312,” he invited medievalists to investigate their corpus in an effort to theorize the origin point of his new theoretical paradigm. Since this claim, scholars such as Sharon Kinoshita, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Geraldine Heng, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, and Kim Phillips, among many others, have questioned the role of orientalism in discourses of alterity, colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, and cross-cultural exchange in the Middle Ages.
In the past three decades since the publication of Said’s Orientalism, scholars have employed, adapted, and contested Said’s formula of orientalism in analyses of medieval European-Asian relations. However, we remain conflicted on its relevance in this earlier period and it remains undertheorized in its medieval contexts. We continue to ask whether the Middle Ages is a site of origin for emergent ideologies of orientalism or a period whose absence of modern empire and colonialism renders it pre-orientalist.
The aim of this panel is to theorize orientalism in such a way that makes a space for the distinct, sometimes contradictory, orientalist narratives at work in the literature of the Middle Ages. Rather than developing a single theory, this panel seeks to theorize the network of orientalist attitudes in various, specific literary pieces. As such, we are interested in pieces that focus on orientalist attitudes, theories, or discourses in one or two specific works.
Sierra Lomuto
Theorizing Orientalism in the Middle Ages (A Roundtable)
Sangren 1910
When Edward Said rooted orientalism’s “formal existence [in] the decision of the Church council of Vienna in 1312,” he invited medievalists to investigate their corpus in an effort to theorize the origin point of his new theoretical paradigm. Since this claim, scholars such as Sharon Kinoshita, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Geraldine Heng, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, and Kim Phillips, among many others, have questioned the role of orientalism in discourses of alterity, colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, and cross-cultural exchange in the Middle Ages.
In the past three decades since the publication of Said’s Orientalism, scholars have employed, adapted, and contested Said’s formula of orientalism in analyses of medieval European-Asian relations. However, we remain conflicted on its relevance in this earlier period and it remains undertheorized in its medieval contexts. We continue to ask whether the Middle Ages is a site of origin for emergent ideologies of orientalism or a period whose absence of modern empire and colonialism renders it pre-orientalist.
The aim of this panel is to theorize orientalism in such a way that makes a space for the distinct, sometimes contradictory, orientalist narratives at work in the literature of the Middle Ages. Rather than developing a single theory, this panel seeks to theorize the network of orientalist attitudes in various, specific literary pieces. As such, we are interested in pieces that focus on orientalist attitudes, theories, or discourses in one or two specific works.
Sierra Lomuto