The International Marie de France Society is pleased to announce that we will sponsor three sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, to be held in hybrid format, May 11-13, 2023 at Western Michigan University. For more information on the Congress, visit the Congress website.
All proposals must be submitted through the Congress Portal by September 15, 2022. That link will appear here as soon as it is made available.
Queries for these panels should be directed to Tamara Bentley Caudill.
PAPERS: Multidisciplinary Marie de France
(Open Topic) This paper panel highlights the multidisciplinarity of Marie’s works. Papers may address any of the known works by Marie de France (the Lais, the Fables, the Espurgatoire seint Patriz, and/or La Vie Seinte Audree) or her imitators and draw connections with various trends in contemporary scholarship. The objective is to provide a space for Marie de France scholars to come together (rather than being scattered across thematic panels at the Congress) and to stimulate discussion regarding the ways that Marie can be incorporated into articles or monographs dealing with issues beyond Romance Studies.
ROUNDTABLE: Marie de France in Popular Culture
This roundtable will bring together scholars, artists, writers, and performers to talk about projects—past, present, and future—that connect Marie de France with the general public. Topics may include Lauren Groff’s New York Times bestseller Matrix (2021); interdisciplinary, public-facing projects, such as those from Explore the Arch (Gail Borrow) and Line and Language (Mary Pullen Deacon); fan fiction and artwork; film; and/or any number of future or imagined projects that connect Marie with a modern audience of non-specialists.
PERFORMANCES: Performances of Marie de France
In this performance session, three to five performers of medieval narrative will present a lai and/or fables of Marie de France. In the past, these performances have involved period music, new translations, and/or dramatic readings in the original language; and we expect this tradition to continue. As Joyce Coleman, Evelyn Birge Vitz, and others have shown, hearing a text read aloud or watching its performance both mirrors the way the work would have been consumed in the Middle Ages and enhances our modern understanding. Attendees regularly report that their perception of the work changes over the course of the session.