Afterlives of Medieval Religion in Contemporary Works

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Tales after Tolkien Society

Organizer Name

Geoffrey B. Elliott

Organizer Affiliation

Independent Scholar

Presider Name

Rachel Cooper

Presider Affiliation

Univ. of Saskatchewan

Paper Title 1

The Postsecular Afterlife of Saint Winifred in Ellis Peters' A Morbid Taste for Bones

Presenter 1 Name

Brett Roscoe

Presenter 1 Affiliation

The King's Univ.

Paper Title 2

Manifestations of Medieval Religion in Robin Hobb's Elderlings Corpus

Presenter 2 Name

Geoffrey B. Elliott

Start Date

12-5-2019 10:30 AM

Session Location

Fetzer 2016

Description

That formal religion was a central element of the European medieval, broadly conceived, is a conventional wisdom that is reflected both in the typical programming of the Congress and in the pages of Speculum, among others—yet many medievalist works, particularly those in mainstream popular culture, neglect or shy away from overt religiosity, or else they invoke it partially and only to specific effects, and in ways that do not appear to align well to the functions of the medieval church. Untangling the uses, misues, and avoidances of a key element of medieval culture in works that purport to be medieval or medievalist in their intent bears examination, and papers in the proposed session are directed to those ends.

-Geoffrey B. Elliott