Medieval History and Marxist Thought
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Luke Fidler
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Chicago
Presider Name
Luke Fidler
Paper Title 1
Reading Transitions? Historical Feudalism and Middle English Poetry
Presenter 1 Name
Jack Dragu
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of Chicago
Paper Title 2
"Mit dem Kreidestift und Farben": Revolutionizing Grünewald in the German Democratic Republic
Presenter 2 Name
Tamara Golan
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Paper Title 3
Hell’s Proletariat: Depictions of Demon Labor in Late Medieval Northern Europe
Presenter 3 Name
Layla Seale
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Rice Univ.
Paper Title 4
Preserving Relations: Christian Support for Control of Land and Labor in Early Medieval England
Presenter 4 Name
Mark Alan Singer
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Minot State Univ.
Paper Title 5
Respondent
Presenter 5 Name
Ethan Knapp
Presenter 5 Affiliation
Ohio State Univ.
Start Date
10-5-2018 10:00 AM
Session Location
Schneider 1120
Description
The discipline of medieval studies has long enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Marxist analysis. Marx and Engels themselves devoted much attention to medieval economies. Historians—notably those of the Annales School—drew on methodologies derived, in part, from Marxist thought. Marxist analyses of ‘feudalism’ contributed significantly to postcolonial thought, as evidenced by the work of the Subaltern Studies Group. A series of medieval art historians (e.g. Meyer Schapiro, O.K. Werckmeister, Jane Welch Williams) have helpfully drawn attention to problems of class, labor, and resistance in the production and reception of medieval objects.
But damning critiques have also been mounted against the utility of Marxist analysis for the medieval period. Is it anachronistic to use heuristics like ‘class-consciousness’ in, say, twelfth-century Saxony? Do medieval practices of gift-giving and sacralization destabilize fundamental Marxist notions of commodification and property? Didn’t Marx and Engels simply misconstrue the medieval world in their theorization of feudalism? This session will therefore query the degree to which Marxist thought has informed/deformed our understanding of the medieval world as well as asking how medieval subjects and objects can reconfigure the tenets of Marxist theory.
Luke A. Fidler
Medieval History and Marxist Thought
Schneider 1120
The discipline of medieval studies has long enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Marxist analysis. Marx and Engels themselves devoted much attention to medieval economies. Historians—notably those of the Annales School—drew on methodologies derived, in part, from Marxist thought. Marxist analyses of ‘feudalism’ contributed significantly to postcolonial thought, as evidenced by the work of the Subaltern Studies Group. A series of medieval art historians (e.g. Meyer Schapiro, O.K. Werckmeister, Jane Welch Williams) have helpfully drawn attention to problems of class, labor, and resistance in the production and reception of medieval objects.
But damning critiques have also been mounted against the utility of Marxist analysis for the medieval period. Is it anachronistic to use heuristics like ‘class-consciousness’ in, say, twelfth-century Saxony? Do medieval practices of gift-giving and sacralization destabilize fundamental Marxist notions of commodification and property? Didn’t Marx and Engels simply misconstrue the medieval world in their theorization of feudalism? This session will therefore query the degree to which Marxist thought has informed/deformed our understanding of the medieval world as well as asking how medieval subjects and objects can reconfigure the tenets of Marxist theory.
Luke A. Fidler