Call For Papers for International Marie De France Society Sponsored Session
2019 MAP/ACMRS Conference “Magic, Religion, and Science in the Global Middle Ages and Renaissance”
“The Magical Mammal in Marie De France”
This session seeks papers that focus on the works of Marie de France and the intersection of magic and the animal body. Recent scholarship, notably that of Karl Steel, has set a precedent for contextualizing animals in order to understand the political, private, and public societies that their bodies reflect in the Middle Ages. Magical moments in Marie’s works are not confined to the occult, but can engage with the miraculous, wonderful, awe-inspiring, as well as the bewitching properties of courtly love. This panel hopes to explore how these moments, in tandem with the animal body, define or destroy medieval identities in Marie’s works. Papers may address any of the known works by Marie de France (the Lais, the Fables, the Espurgatoire seint Patriz, La vie Seinte Audree) or the anonymous lays. The objective is to generate discussion on how Marie de France’s works construct complex medieval identities through the use of the animal body.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words together with a brief bio to session organizer Jillian K. Sutton at sutton.jillian.kaye@gmail.com by the 20 October 2018. Please include your name, title, and affiliation on the abstract itself.