medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
----Apologies for cross-posting----
Submissions are invited for a panel on "Things in General: Objects, Facts, and Materiality in Medieval Culture" (see description below) at the New England Medieval Conference, Oct. 13-14, 2001, at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. (Please note that New Hampshire is very pretty at that time of year!)
Send abstracts + CV by August 1 to
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Monika Otter
English Department
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755
fax: 603-646-2159
Things in General: Objects, Facts, and Materiality in Medieval Culture
The study of "things"--mostly understood as material culture--has long been
important in certain folklore-oriented branches of local and social history; it
has recently become fashionable in mainstream academic history, esp. in early
modern studies (see for instance Daniel Roche's recent A History of Everyday
Things or J. Brewer and R. Porter, Consumption and the World of Goods.) On the
evidence of recent Kalamazoo programs and calls for papers (as well as the New
England Medieval Conference 2000), there is a growing interest in the subject
among medievalists as well. We would like to explore the uses of "things" in
medieval studies, but expand and slightly shift the topic from particular
inquiries into material culture (such as studies of textiles, farm implements,
etc.) to theoretical and methodological reflections on medieval thing-ness in
general: the way medieval people think of and relate to material objects/
facts; and the ways medievalists can use material objects to access medieval
thought and mentality. Understood in this way, the study of "things" transcends
academic disciplines, inviting participation not only from historians but also
literary scholars, art historians, musicologists, historians of science,
philosophers, theologians and others.
Some subheadings:
1. medieval thinking on / theorizing of materiality, objects, facts; the place
of "things" in philosophical / theological /scientific systems;
2. uses of objects--real or imaginary--in logic, mnemonics, inventio;
3. uses of objects--real or imaginary--in devotional thought and practice, or
in commemorative practice;
4. uses/representations of objects in art, music, literature; thinking on
materiality, thingness, concreteness (or lack thereof) in artistic production;
5. symbolically expressive objects or spatial relations;
6. attitudes towards material possession, wealth and poverty, luxury and
asceticism;
7. attitudes towards technology, tools, mechanical arts, technical innovation;
8. attitudes towards trade and exchange, merchants, mercantilism;
9. material culture and medievalists (with a strong emphasis on methodological
theoretical reflection as opposed to merely descriptive examples of such
approaches)
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