Call for Papers:
Medieval Studies and Orientalism Twenty Years Later
Thirty-Third International Congress on Medieval Studies
May 7-10, 1998
The Medieval Institute
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI
Two decades after the publication of Edward Said's _Orientalism_ it is worth considering what impact his work has had on the practice of Medieval Studies. These sessions will consider how useful it is to speak of Orientalism in con- nection with the Middle Ages. They will offer a critique of Said's work by considering how Latin Christian Europe constructed images of the "outside" world during the medieval period. Through what intellectual filters did real knowledge about peoples and lands beyond its borders pass? What effect did these images, once constructed, have on later contact? Where was the Orient in the Middle Ages, did its location change, and how did its emerging bound- aries help Europe define its notions of itself? If Orientalism is in part an academic enterprise, to what degree have medievalists been orientalists? How have we orientalized the past, or certain parts of the past?
Themes addressed might include: Medievalist Orientalists; Orientalism and the Crusades; Orientalism and Colonization; Orientalism in Literature; Orientalism and Scholastic Humanism; Said and the Middle Ages; Orientalism in Iberia; The Orient and the East.
Co-organizers: Lucy K. Pick and Richard Raiswell
Send abstracts before 15 September 1997 to:
Dr. Lucy K. Pick
Divinity School
University of Chicago
Swift Hall
1025 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
FAX (773) 702-6048
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