International Marie de France Society

Papers of Interest:

S43, Thursday at 10
Far and Foul Winds in the Lais of Marie de France 
Karen Casebier, Univ. of Tennessee–Chattanooga

Session 242, Friday at 1:30
A Concerning Complex: Courtly Love and Chivalry in Marie de France
Rachel Walkover, Univ. of Rochester

S320, Friday at 3:30
Obscure Names: Reimagining Origins in the Lais of Marie de France 
Emily Dalton, Princeton Univ.

S348, Sponsored by the International Marie de France Society

Such Devoted Sisters: Sorority in Le Frêne and Eliduc 
Leslie Anderson, Bellarmine Univ. 

Conjecture: Deus amanz and Marie’s Identity 
Rupert T. Pickens, Univ. of Kentucky

Monastic Mothering: Marie’s Le Fresne and Historical Women’s Communities 
Carol Neel, Colorado College 

Femininity, Fear, and Friendship: Exploring the Homonormative in Marie de France’s Bisclavret 
Jillian K. Sutton, California State Univ.–Long Beach

International Marie de Society Business Meeting
Fetzer 1030, 12pm on Saturday

1c. Textual and Linguistic Transformation in Medieval Scandinavia

• “Transforming the Werewolf: Bisclavret’s Textual Transmission and Reception in Thirteenth- to Fifteenth-Century Scandinavia” Basil Price, Arizona State University
• “The Magical Other: The Marginalization of Magical Women in the Íslendingasögur” Tristan Rebe, Arizona State University 
• “Religion, Magic, and Medieval Narratives” Laurie Price, University of New Mexico

4e. The Magical Mammal in Marie de France

SPONSORED BY: International Marie de France Society/Société internationale Marie de France (IMFS)

CHAIR: Jillian Sutton, California State University, Long Beach

• “The Magical Amplexus between the Mouse and the Frog” Alma Valencia-Escobar, San Diego State University
• “Were-love in Marie de France’s Bisclavret” Jason Thames, California State University, Long Beach

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.

(1 – Papers) Family and Kinship in Marie de France

Twelfth-century woman poet and author of the Lais, Marie de France has long been celebrated for the richness of her courtly texts. However, her detailed insights into life and love are by no means limited to the courtly love paradigm. Rather, Marie’s works present her audience with an intimate look at friendships, alliances, rivalries, family bonds and ties of different kinds that paint a picture of the interconnectedness of medieval relationships in their context.  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.  Comparative and interdisciplinary analyses that draw connections between works of medieval literature on family and kinship are welcome. Papers may consider, but should not be limited to, gender and sexuality studies, narratology, psychology, and so on. The objective is to generate discussion on how Marie de France’s works construct relationships in the courtly context, as well as their broader meanings today.

(2 – Roundtable) Bodies and Gender in Marie de France —New Theoretical Lenses
This session focuses on how and what material bodies can signify in medieval culture in the works of Marie de France (the Lais, the Fables, the Espurgatoire seint Patriz, La vie Seinte Audree). Four to five Roundtable presenters will consider the complex spectrum of medieval gender identities revealed to us through Marie’s various literary genres, exploring medieval conversations about how narratives that focus on the body’s parameters (from essentialist to performative) might represent sex, gender, and sexuality in different ways. Presenters may consider bodies torn between the demands of the physical and the devotional, with specific focus on monstrous, hybrid, comical, political, and social bodies. Discussants will address the impact of recent theoretical interests on Marie’s narrative uses of bodies, including, but not limited to, performance theory, gender theory, and post-colonial theory. The objective is to generate discussion between roundtable presenters and participants to consider the functions of mimicry, gender-ambiguity, and wounded-ness (among others) in the creation of narrative selves, as well as how the dynamic variety of bodies represented in Marie’s works can give us access to medieval conversations about the forces underlying theological, political, social, and textual power.

(3 – Performances) Performances of Marie de France: Chevrefoil

In this performance session, three to five performers will present the lai of Marie de France entitled Chevrefoil. As in years past, the panel invites performers who revive the lai by using period music, new translations, and dramatic readings in the original language. As Joyce Coleman, Evelyn Birge Vitz, and others have argued, 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. Our attendees regularly report that their perception of the work changes over the course of the session. The objective is to generate discussion about the use of voice, gesture, and music in the embodiment of the text – and how its performance reveals nuances of meaning that may be lost when read in silence on the page.

The Lais of Marie de France: Text and Translation
Translated and edited by Claire M. Waters (UC Davis)
Copyright: Broadview Press, 2018
ISBN: 9781554810826
Cost: $15.95

Broadview Press is publishing a new, facing-page edition of Marie de France’s lais. Alongside the twelve lais, the Appendices features critical essays and manuscript information.