Wounds Visible and Invisible in Late Medieval Christianity

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Hannah Kirby Wood; Johanna Pollick

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Toronto; Univ. of Glasgow

Presider Name

Hannah Kirby Wood; Johanna Pollick

Paper Title 1

Open Book, Broken Flesh: The Victoria and Albert Museum's Painted Ivory Devotional Booklet as Simulacral Wound

Presenter 1 Name

Alexa Sue Amore

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Institute of Fine Arts, New York Univ.

Paper Title 2

Somnambulism, Dreams, and Secunda Mors: Fear of the Fissured Soul in Alliterative Romance

Presenter 2 Name

Sonya L. Lundblad

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. i Stavanger

Paper Title 3

Saintly Bodies: Surgery and Religion in Medieval Scandinavia

Presenter 3 Name

Sarah Baccianti

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Queen's Univ. Belfast

Paper Title 4

"Full Febyll and Unwyse": Wounds Physical and Intellectual in Julian of Norwich's Parable of the Lord and Servant

Presenter 4 Name

Julie Paulson

Presenter 4 Affiliation

San Francisco State Univ.

Start Date

10-5-2019 10:00 AM

Session Location

Schneider 2345

Description

This session at the 2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies examines the many valences of wounds in late medieval Christianity, focusing on themes surrounding wounds and wounding both visible (corporeal and/or material) and invisible (rhetorical and allegorical). The image of the wounded body held a central place in late medieval Christian practice and material culture; the wounds of the crucified Christ were tangible reminders of his Passion and served as foci of veneration, while stigmatic saints and maimed martyrs were marked as holy by means of bodily trauma. Papers may also consider the Christian response to physical injury, in the form of saintly intervention through healing miracles and medical intervention through the establishment of hospitals and provision of care by religious orders.

Moving beyond the ample possibilities for discussion stemming from the theme of “visible” wounds in medieval Christianity, this session also encourages a broad examination of “invisible” wounds within the late medieval Christian context. Examples might range from the accusations of metaphorical violence levied against the mendicant orders by antifraternal critics, to the conceptualization of the Western Schism as a wound to the Church. By exploring wounds both visible and invisible, this session elicits the perspectives of scholars of history, art history, literature, and theology and seeks to expand conceptions of wounds and injury within a late medieval Christian framework. Hannah Kirby Wood

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May 10th, 10:00 AM

Wounds Visible and Invisible in Late Medieval Christianity

Schneider 2345

This session at the 2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies examines the many valences of wounds in late medieval Christianity, focusing on themes surrounding wounds and wounding both visible (corporeal and/or material) and invisible (rhetorical and allegorical). The image of the wounded body held a central place in late medieval Christian practice and material culture; the wounds of the crucified Christ were tangible reminders of his Passion and served as foci of veneration, while stigmatic saints and maimed martyrs were marked as holy by means of bodily trauma. Papers may also consider the Christian response to physical injury, in the form of saintly intervention through healing miracles and medical intervention through the establishment of hospitals and provision of care by religious orders.

Moving beyond the ample possibilities for discussion stemming from the theme of “visible” wounds in medieval Christianity, this session also encourages a broad examination of “invisible” wounds within the late medieval Christian context. Examples might range from the accusations of metaphorical violence levied against the mendicant orders by antifraternal critics, to the conceptualization of the Western Schism as a wound to the Church. By exploring wounds both visible and invisible, this session elicits the perspectives of scholars of history, art history, literature, and theology and seeks to expand conceptions of wounds and injury within a late medieval Christian framework. Hannah Kirby Wood