Experiencing Textiles in Medieval Culture and German Literature

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Society for Medieval Germanic Studies (SMGS)

Organizer Name

Evelyn Meyer; Joseph M. Sullivan; Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand

Organizer Affiliation

St. Louis Univ.; Univ. of Oklahoma; Appalachian State Univ.

Presider Name

Evelyn Meyer

Paper Title 1

Mit kunkeln und mit schaeren: Tools for Reading Textiles in Medieval German Texts

Presenter 1 Name

Hannah Hunter-Parker

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Princeton Univ.

Paper Title 2

Weaving Words, Spinning Yarns, and Embroidering the Truth in Medieval German Literature

Presenter 2 Name

Kathryn Starkey

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Stanford Univ.

Paper Title 3

Who and What Do You Pin It On? Badges and Belonging in Late Medieval Europe

Presenter 3 Name

Ann Marie Rasmussen

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Waterloo

Paper Title 4

Respondent

Presenter 4 Name

Monica L. Wright

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Univ. of Louisiana-Lafayette

Start Date

12-5-2019 10:30 AM

Session Location

Fetzer 2020

Description

While the study of textiles, and especially clothing, has emerged as a major field of inquiry in the last two decades in, for example, Middle English and Old French literature studies (for example, in the work of Sarah-Grace Heller and Monica Wright), Germanists have as yet failed to analyze in any kind of depth how textiles function in medieval literature to develop characters, to move the narrative action, to structure the plot, and to delight especially noble audiences with descriptions of objects that were absolutely central to their construction of self. With this session, which is the first that we have devoted to material objects in recent memory, we hope not only to engender a lively discussion but also to spur new and active research among colleagues in what is for most of us a new area begging for further investigation. Evelyn Meyer