Nature and the Unnatural in the Middle Ages: New Perspectives
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Medieval Studies Workshop, Univ. of Chicago
Organizer Name
Melissa Horn
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Chicago
Presider Name
Melissa Horn
Paper Title 1
The Green Man (and His Cat)
Presenter 1 Name
Paul Hardwick
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Leeds Trinity Univ.
Paper Title 2
What Is Natural Anyway? A Re-examination of Folklore, Monastic Exempla, and Encounters with Unnatural Entities in the Late Middle Ages
Presenter 2 Name
Stephanie Victoria Violette
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of California-San Diego
Paper Title 3
The Devil and Julian of Norwich
Presenter 3 Name
Gina Brandolino
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Start Date
11-5-2018 1:30 PM
Session Location
Schneider 1360
Description
Scholarship on the Middle Ages has long turned to medieval conceptions of nature and the unnatural as a deep cultural logic underlying a broad range medieval social and cultural practices. This panel seeks new work on nature and the unnatural in the middle ages, inviting new perspectives on how notions of nature/unnature shaped medieval definitions and interpretations of their world. Medieval people variously theorized the fluid boundary between nature and the unnatural: it described the liminal space between the celestial and infernal worlds, the miraculous and decaying body, sexual propriety and deviance, and mystical visions, among a whole host of other phenomena. Similarly, notions of nature and the unnatural undergird a variety of medieval textual and material survivals, including scholastic texts on perspectiva, Gothic architectural ornament, saints’ lives, surveying manuals, monastic rules, mappae mundi, and liturgical objects. How can new scholarly perspectives refresh our understanding of what, and how, nature and unnature meant during the Middle Ages? How might these new perspectives help uncover medieval theorizations of nature and the unnatural in places and sources we haven’t yet looked? In short: what else was nature and the unnatural during the Middle Ages? These are but a few questions this panel seeks to explore.
Melissa Horn
Nature and the Unnatural in the Middle Ages: New Perspectives
Schneider 1360
Scholarship on the Middle Ages has long turned to medieval conceptions of nature and the unnatural as a deep cultural logic underlying a broad range medieval social and cultural practices. This panel seeks new work on nature and the unnatural in the middle ages, inviting new perspectives on how notions of nature/unnature shaped medieval definitions and interpretations of their world. Medieval people variously theorized the fluid boundary between nature and the unnatural: it described the liminal space between the celestial and infernal worlds, the miraculous and decaying body, sexual propriety and deviance, and mystical visions, among a whole host of other phenomena. Similarly, notions of nature and the unnatural undergird a variety of medieval textual and material survivals, including scholastic texts on perspectiva, Gothic architectural ornament, saints’ lives, surveying manuals, monastic rules, mappae mundi, and liturgical objects. How can new scholarly perspectives refresh our understanding of what, and how, nature and unnature meant during the Middle Ages? How might these new perspectives help uncover medieval theorizations of nature and the unnatural in places and sources we haven’t yet looked? In short: what else was nature and the unnatural during the Middle Ages? These are but a few questions this panel seeks to explore.
Melissa Horn