CFP Modern Myth and Legend (9/2/2015; Louisville, KY 2/18-20/2016)

Cross-posted from NEPCA Fantastic:

Modern Myth and Legend - Louisville Conference (Feb. 18-20, 2016)
full name / name of organization: International Lawrence Durrell Society
contact email: clawsonj@gram.edu
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63312

The Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900


http://www.thelouisvilleconference.com


Louisville, KY | 18-20 February 2016

"we do create the world around us since we get it to reflect back our inner symbolism at us. Every man carries a little myth-making machine inside him which operates often without him knowing it. Thus you might say that we live by a very exacting kind of poetic logic--since we get exactly what we ask for, no more and no less."
--The Dark Labyrinth (1947)

Dealing overtly with ideas of myth and legend, Lawrence Durrell's The Dark Labyrinth chronicles the adventures of British tourists exploring a cave system on Crete just after World War II. Despite their awareness of how reality is transformed by their individual experiences, beliefs, and myth-making, they are no less susceptible to the fear of the minotaur which might be chasing them through the dark passageways. A myth becomes the way we understand the world. As a legend, the monster and its labyrinth offer grounds to reflect on personal terrors and emerge triumphant—or be consumed.

In anticipation of our upcoming conference on Crete, the International Lawrence Durrell Society calls for papers addressing the broad theme of Modern Myth and Legend for a society-sponsored session of the 2016 Louisville Conference. We welcome proposals on aspects of Durrell's writing or other topics addressing the theme. Some possible topics include the following:

• W. B. Yeats's esoteric blending of Greek, Irish, and other mythologies
• Refigured legends in the aftermath of T.S. Eliot's "Ulysses, Order, and Myth," including Iris Murdoch's The Green Night or John Gardner's Grendel
• Frazer's The Golden Bough and its impact on modernist literature
• Fantasy repurposing legend, as in Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series
• Mythologizing the 20th century in film, including for example Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth or Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away
• Legendary societies, urban legends, apocrypha, and literary mysteries
• Symbolic use of tall tales, or the literary adapting of Bigfoot, werewolves, vampires, minotaurs, homunculi, gorgons, witches, griffins, manticores, giants, etc.

Please send a 250-word abstract to James Clawson (clawsonj@gram.edu), International Lawrence Durrell Society, by Sept. 2, 2015. Final presentations should be limited to 20 minutes in length.


By web submission at 08/06/2015 - 20:58

CFP Hell Studies: Presenting and Representing Hell (9/15/2015; Kalamazoo 5/12-15/2016)

Hell Studies: Presenting and Representing Hell (ICMS Kalamazoo 2016)
full name / name of organization:
Societas Daemonetica
contact email:
burleyr@bc.edu

The Societas Daemonetica is accepting proposals for fifteen- to twenty-minute papers for the Hell Studies session Presenting and Representing Hell, to be held at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, May 12-15, 2016.

Representations of Hell appear throughout the Middle Ages, in textual descriptions, manuscript illuminations, portal sculpture, wall paintings - indeed, in nearly every representational medium across Europe from the 5th century to the 15th. How is Hell represented? How are its occupants characterized? From the cold and serpent-filled Hell of the Blickling Homilies to the fiery and torturous one that adorns the façade of Autun, the presentation and representation of Hell has been done in many ways and, it would appear, to many ends. This session seeks to bring scholars from various disciplines together to discuss the ways in which “the other place” is offered up to medieval audiences for consumption, and the insights which can be derived from its study. Despite the vast literature on Hell and its related topics – populated by the likes of J. B. Russell, Henry Ansgar Kelly, Jacques Le Goff, Eileen Gardiner, and so many more – there remains a great deal more to study and address. New scholarship, like Philip Almond's well-received new biography of the Devil published just last year, is constantly being published, adding to our understanding of this dynamic field. With this session, we hope to provide an interdisciplinary forum for new ideas and new perspectives on the looming historical spectre of Hell and what it meant for the people at the time.

We welcome papers from literary, art historical, historical, theological, and interdisciplinary perspectives -- all treatments of the topic are welcome. Please send proposals of no longer than 250 words along with a completed Participant Information Form (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html) to Richard Ford Burley (burleyr@bc.edu) by September 15, 2015. Preliminary inquiries and other questions are also welcome.


By web submission at 08/11/2015 - 22:52

CFP Chronicles and Grimoires: The Occult as Political Commentary (9/15/2015; Kalamazoo 5/12-15/2016)

[Update] Chronicles and Grimoires: The Occult as Political Commentary
full name / name of organization: ICMS Kalamazoo 2016
contact email: dominique.hoche@westliberty.edu
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63393

Whether seen in signs and portents, or read in grimoires or magic books, the occult in the premodern world is both marveled at and feared. A significant amount of the description of occult and sorcerous activity, however, also functions as political commentary, whether as direct criticism of secular current events or as a voice or conceptual space for the spiritual “other” in medieval society.

Some examples of these voices can be heard in the manuscript BN Ffr. 1553 that is the chronicle of Eustache le Moine (known as the Black Friar, ca. 1170-1217) who was a Benedictine who studied necromancy and the black arts and ultimately became a pirate; the popularity and repeated multi-language printings of the Clavicule of Solomon in Italy in the 1300’s; the introductory and defensive letters in the German humanist scholar Agrippa’s books on occult philosophy (c. 1533); the tempered criticism of Johan Weyer’s De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563) or its opposite, Martin Del Rio’s inflammatory Disquisitionum magicae (1608). Political commentary regarding the occult often tests the limits of scribal activity, and can lead to persecution and/or charges of treason or heresy. We welcome papers that explore this dangerous connection between the reception of the occult and political commentary or criticism.

Proposals (for presentations of no longer than 20 minutes) should be no longer than 400 words and must clearly indicate the significance, line of argument, principal texts and relation to existing scholarship (if possible). Email the proposal in the body of the message, a 50-word bio note, and a completed Participant Information form (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF) to Dominique Hoche at dominique.hoche@westliberty.edu . Due September 15, 2015.
For general information about the 2016 Medieval Congress, visit: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/index.html.


By web submission at 08/11/2015 - 22:07
CFP Website maintained by
The University of Pennsylvania Department of English

CFP Edited anthology of Conjure, Hoodoo and Voodoo in African-American Literature (no posted deadline)

Edited anthology of Conjure, Hoodoo and Voodoo in African-American Literature
full name / name of organization: James Mellis/ William Paterson University
contact email: mellisj@wpunj.edu

Articles are sought for a collection of essays on representations of Conjure, Hoodoo and Voodoo in African-American literature. This collection seeks to explore how African-American writers have used, referenced, engaged and disengaged with Conjure, Hoodoo and Voodoo in their writing through various cultural and historical movements.

The primary thread of this study will be an argument that from their initial arrival on American shores, African-American writers have used voodoo and conjuring as a literary trope that has served as a touchstone for religious, political and national identity. By examining slave narratives, novels, poetry and drama, this study will interrogate how African-American authors repeatedly returned to Conjure, Hoodoo and Voodoo as a way to examine their own shifting political and cultural positions in America. I am seeking original essays for a major academic publisher who has accepted the proposed anthology. Some authors that can treated are: Frederick Douglass, Phyllis Wheatley, Henry Bibb, William Wells Brown, Nat Turner, William Grimes, Olaudah Equiano, Charles Chesnutt, George Washington Cable, Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, Rudolph Fisher, Jean Toomer, Richard Wright, Arna Bomtemps, Countee Cullen,Ishmael Reed, Amiri Baraka, Robert Hayden, Toni Morrison, Rainelle Burton, Colson Whitehead, Charles Johnson, August Wilson, Ntzoke Shange, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Gloria Naylor, Darius James, Gayl Jones and Carl Hancock Rux, and others.

Please send proposals of 250-350 words to mellis@wpunj.edu. Please note that an invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee inclusion in the published volume.


By web submission at 08/20/2015 - 15:03

CFP The Supernatural (Conference) (10/2/2015; Budapest 3/11-13/2016)

The Supernatural [11 March 2016 - 13 March 2016]
full name / name of organization: Inter-Disciplinary.Net
contact email: supernatural@inter-disciplinary.net
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63555

The Supernatural
Call for Participation 2016

Friday 11th March – Sunday 13th March 2016
Budapest, Hungary

From vengeful gods and goddesses and witches to poltergeists and hauntings, to demonic possession and the accompany exorcism rituals, the human imagination has been captivated for millennia by the power of forces that operate outside the laws of nature and the relationship between humans and the spirit world. Over time, the supernatural has served as a basis for titillating audiences and generating fear. The supernatural has served as a useful means of explaining complicated natural processes in terms humans understand. As history’s famous witch-hunts have demonstrated, the supernatural is also a potent weapon for exerting control over individuals whose behaviour or appearance fail to confirm to the ‘norms’ of the community. Conversely, the supernatural can also provide a means of expressing minority beliefs in a way that challenges the power of mainstream organized religions. The supernatural offers a source of personal comfort in the face of grief by providing assurance that a departed loved one is watching over us. However, as the long line of supernatural hoaxes reveal, however, this longing to believe in the afterlife can enable schemes designed to manipulate and swindle vulnerable people.

But just what purpose does the supernatural serve in 21st century societies? Is it a throwback to the irrational, superstitious and archaic beliefs of a so-called primitive era, or is it a reminder that there is more to existence than the ‘truths’ revealed by the sciences? The Supernatural interdisciplinary research and publishing event aims to interrogate and investigate the supernatural from a variety of perspectives in order to understand the uses and meanings of the supernatural across time and cultures. Subjects for presentation include, but are not limited to, the following:

The Supernatural in Theory and Practice

• Shifting perspectives of what is supernatural over time and across cultures
• Non-Western perspectives on the supernatural
• What attitudes toward the supernatural suggest about human perceptions of the boundaries between worlds
• Ancestor worship and the cultures in which this tradition is practiced
• Witchcraft, voodoo and the cultures where these traditions are practiced
• Satanism and cultural perceptions of this belief system
• Reasons behind the enduring fascination with supernatural evil, including philosophical, theological and anthropological perspectives on this question
• Relationship between the supernatural and magic
• Religious traditions and the supernatural (supernatural aspects of faith and belief, attitudes of faith traditions toward the supernatural, how clergy respond to individuals who report supernatural experiences, etc.)

The Supernatural and Real Life

• Socially accepted forms of supernatural belief and the factors that make some beliefs more acceptable than others
• Harms and benefits of believing in the supernatural
• Relationship between the supernatural and cruelty
• Apocalyptic supernatural evil events or characters and the significance of millenarianism
• Characteristics of supernatural entities and the significance of their difference from/similarity to human traits
• Relationship between the supernatural and social power/ideologies (e.g. witchcraft as pretext for dealing with non-conforming women, using the supernatural to engage with physical enemies, etc.)
• Legal/legislative approaches to restricting or enabling supernatural belief (limits of religious freedom principles, state-sanctioned punishment of witches, etc.)
• Medical/clinical perspectives on belief in the supernatural: the neuroscience behind (dis)belief, clinical responses to individuals who report supernatural experiences
• Science and the supernatural: using science to (dis)prove supernatural occurrences
• Technologies that facilitate/measure/prove engagement with the paranormal/occult
• Future of the supernatural in a world increasingly driven by science and reason

Supernatural Encounters

• Analyses of reports of supernatural encounters: common conventions of reports, style and mode of recounting experience, impact of titillation versus simple reporting of events in the reports of these encounters
• How the function and/or interpretation of a report of supernatural evil changes over time or across cultures
• Impact of oral traditions, artistic renderings and generic conventions on the telling and reception of accounts involving supernatural encounters
• How the reception of reports of the supernatural is influenced by the experience of listening versus reading or viewing
• Emotional and intellectual pleasures associated with the supernatural: pleasures of fear and titillation, etc.
• Comedic interpretations of supernatural evil: haunted houses in amusement parks, horror movie spoofs, etc
• Supernatural in film, television (including reality series like Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters), theatre, music, art and literature—and how they differ from more ‘traditional’ accounts
• Supernatural spaces: spaces associated with evil and the economic benefits/tourism implications of such connections
• Hoaxes, frauds and swindles

Supernatural and live performance

Curated film screenings
Performances (dramatic staging, dance, music)
Readings
Art installations

Call for Cross-Over Presentations
The Supernatural project will be meeting at the same time as a project on Trauma and another project on Loss. We welcome submissions which cross the divide between both project areas. If you would like to be considered for a cross project session, please mark your submission “Crossover Submission”.

Further details and information can be found at the project web site:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/ethos/the-supernatural...

What to Send
300 word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution should be submitted by Friday 2nd October 2015.
All submissions be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.

You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Friday 16th October 2015.
If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 5th February 2016.

Abstracts may be in Word, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: The Supernatural Abstract Submission

Where to Send
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs:

Organising Chairs:
Stephen Morris: smmorris58@yahoo.com
Rob Fisher: supernatural@inter-disciplinary.net

This event is an inclusive interdisciplinary research and publishing project. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

There will be an eBook resulting from the conference meeting. It is also anticipated that a number of other publishing options will arise from the work of the project generally and from the meeting of The Supernatural stream in particular. Other options, some of which might include digital publications, paperbacks and a journal will be explored during the meeting itself.

Ethos
Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation. Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.


By web submission at 08/21/2015 - 13:48

CFP Monsters, Demons and the Jewish Fantastic (Spec Issue of Jewish Film & New Media) (10/1/2015)

[UPDATE] CFP: Monsters, Demons and the Jewish Fantastic (Special Issue of Jewish Film & New Media) [Deadline: 1 October, 2015)
full name / name of organization: Mikel J. Koven, University of Worcester
contact email: m.koven@worc.ac.uk
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63422

CFP: Monsters, Demons and the Jewish Fantastic (Special Issue of Jewish Film & New Media) [Deadline: 1 October, 2015)
Oy! Have We Got a Monster for You!
Monsters, demons and the Jewish Fantastic
Special Issue of Jewish Film & New Media
Guest editor, Mikel J. Koven (University of Worcester)
Autumn 2016

The Journal of Jewish Film & New Media invites submissions for a special issue on Jewish horror and fantasy in film, TV and new media productions.

Jewish Film & New Media provides an outlet for research into all aspects of Jewish film, television, and new media and is unique in its interdisciplinary nature, exploring the rich and diverse cultural heritage across the globe. The journal is distinctive in bringing together a range of cinemas, televisions, films, programs, and other digital material in one volume and in its positioning of the discussions within a range of contexts—the cultural, historical, textual, and many others.

This special issue, planned for Autumn 2016, may include essays discussing any form of (broadly interpreted) Jewish horror or fantasy in film, television series (or episodes), or other digital material. Topics may include, but are not limited to,

• Representations of Jews in horror and fantasy films, TV series and new media productions
• Horror & fantasy films, TV series and new media productions made by Jewish producers – i.e. Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Roman Polanski, Larry Cohen, etc.
• Jewish spectatorship and audiences
• Jewish folklore monsters in film, TV series and new media productions – specifically golems and dybbuks
• Jewish parodies of horror and fantasy films, TV series and new media productions
• Israeli horror and fantasy films, TV series and new media productions (an article on Kalvet/Rabies would be particularly appreciated)

Submissions should be 8,000-10,0000 words in length following Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. Submissions should be made (electronically) to Dr. Mikel Koven (m.koven@worc.ac.uk) by 1 October, 2015. Informal enquiries and correspondence regarding this special issue should also be sent to m.koven@worc.ac.uk

 08/13/2015 - 11:36

Madame Frankenstein Collected

Image Comics recently released a collected edition of the Madame Frankenstein series, an intriguing blend of the Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein stories, Shaw's Pygmalion, masculine rivalry, and (for some reason) the Cotttingley fairies all set in 1932 Boston. The story, told in black and white as befitting the era, is worth a read, though the art seems a bit too cartoonish for the tone. Covers are reprinted with the story, but they have been reproduced in black and white as opposed to the original color (see them at the Grand Comics Database: http://www.comics.org/series/80562/covers/). Details from the publisher follow below.

MADAME FRANKENSTEIN TP
https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/madame-frankenstein-tp
Story By: Jamie S. Rich
Art By: Megan Levens
Cover By: Joelle Jones
Cover By: Nick Filardi
Published: March 18, 2015
Diamond ID: DEC140674

In 1932, Vincent Krall sets out to create his perfect woman by reanimating the corpse of the love of his life. He’ll soon discover, however, that man was never meant to peer beyond the veil between life and death, and a woman is not as easily controlled as he believes. The collected MADAME FRANKENSTEIN contains all the covers by Helheim artist JOËLLE JONES and an exclusive gallery section showcasing MEGAN LEVENS’ development process. Collects MADAME FRANKENSTEIN #1-7.

 Print: $16.99

CFP The Weird and the Southern Imaginary (proposals by 11/2/2015)

CFP: The Weird and the Southern Imaginary
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/77005/cfp-weird-and-southern-imaginary

Announcement published by James Rozier on Thursday, August 6, 2015
Type: Call for Papers
Date: November 2, 2015
Location: United States
Subject Fields: American History / Studies, Communication, Composition & Rhetoric, Cultural History / Studies, Ethnic History / Studies

Call for Papers:

The Weird & the Southern Imaginary

General Eds.: Travis Rozier & Bob Hodges



Keynote: The Weird & the Southern Imaginary will introduce the aesthetics and generic conventions of the Weird to cultural studies of the U.S. South and the region’s local, hemispheric, and (inter)national connections. Contributions from literary critics, film and popular culture scholars, philosophers, and critical theorists will consider forms of the Weird in a range of texts (literature, art, film & television, comics, music) from, about, or resonant with conceptions of different South(s).



Description: S. T. Joshi periodizes Haute Weird Fiction from 1880-1940, and China Miéville describes how the paradigm of Haute Weird Fiction, especially in its foremost practitioner H. P. Lovecraft, invokes horror, alterity, and/or awe on a cosmic scale, which seeps into the mundane experiences of cognitively ill-equipped scientific or academic protagonists. The Weird aesthetic, especially pre-World War II, is often inextricable from revanchist horrors of democracy, political revolution, miscegenation, and female or other non-normative sexualities, although Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s recent Weird compendium stresses the “darkly democratic” aspect of a C20 and C21 Weird tradition that spans nations, genders, genres, and levels of literary status.



Representations of the U.S. South as an irrational or reactionary space draw on what Deborah Barker and Kathryn McKee describe as the southern imaginary, a fluid reservoir of topoi referencing an enduring material history of land appropriation, coercive labor practices, carceral landscapes, racial and commercial mixing, extralegal violence, and insular patriarchies. The Weird & the Southern Imaginary will explore Weird South(s), whether that means national aberrance or cosmic otherness.  For example, the first television season of True Detective melds the conservative politics and religious fervor often equated with the South to vaster hints of conspiratorial and cosmic horror in a postindustrial Louisiana swampscape.



The dark fantasy of the Weird diverges sharply from the usual monstrosities of horror and speculative fictions as well as many modes of southern representation: the gothic, the grotesque, the uncanny, the ghostly or hauntological, or the folkloric, modes with longstanding southern associations and almost as longstanding critical fatigue for Southernisits. The Weird can also bridge Southern Studies and its old associations with recent work in object-oriented ontology, ecotheory, other new materialisms, and nihilist philosophy as well as apocalyptic popular cultural fixations without ceding inquires about the production of southern alterity.



Submission Guidelines: All proposed essays should address the concepts of the Weird and the South, however understood. Essays should be written in English, but can be written about texts read or viewed in other languages. We will also accept work on texts in translation. We are looking for critical essays (5,000-8,000 words). If you are interested in contributing an essay to the collection please send us a 300-500 word abstract by November 2, 2015.



Possible Topics:  (Feel free to combine topics or propose a topic not represented in the list)

• Weird South(s) in U.S. literature
• International Weird Fiction & southern imaginary, subtly connected or not
• Race & the southern imaginary in Weird Fiction
• Political or cultural reaction & Weird South(s)
• Weird carceral practices & the southern imaginary (Franz Kafka “In the Penal Colony”)
• Environmental transformation or degradation & Weird South(s)
• The nonhuman or posthuman in southern literature (Matthew Taylor)
• Dark ecology (Timothy Morton) & southern landscapes, swampscapes, etc.
• Nihilism, extinction, or the recalcitrance of the world (Eugene Thacker) & the South(s)
• C19 South & proto-Weird Fiction
• Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, & H. P. Lovecraft
• The Weird associations of the South & the Antarctic (Poe, Herman Melville, Lovecraft)
• R. H. Barlow in Florida, his Weird Fiction, or his correspondence with Lovecraft
• Robert E. Howard in Texas, his Weird Fiction, or his correspondence with Lovecraft
• Weird Appalachia (Lovecraft, Manly Wade Hopkins’s Silver John stories, Fred Chappell)
• Henry S. Whitehead’s Weird West Indian tales
• Eudora Welty & Weird Fiction (Mitch Frye)
• Weird Fiction, modernist literary strategies, & the South (William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston “Uncle Monday”, Flannery O’Connor)
• The Weird in Latin American Boom fiction (Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez, Augusto Monterroso), its forbearers (Jorge Luis Borges), & its successors (Junot Díaz, Jamaica Kincaid)
• Contemporary or New (South) Weird (Poppy Z. Brite, Stephen Graham Jones, Caitlín Kiernan, Joe Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, Jeff VanderMeer The Southern Reach Trilogy)
• Weird southern comics (Alan Moore et al. Saga of the Swamp Thing, Garth Ennis et al. Preacher)

Contact Info:

Travis Rozier, Ph.D.
Department of English & Linguistics
Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
jamesrzr138@gmail.com


Bob Hodges, Ph.C.
Kollar Endowed Fellow
Dept. of English, U of Washington
bhodge4@gmail.com


Contact Email:
jamesrzr138@gmail.com

CFP Monster at the Table session (8/30/2015; IMC Leeds 7/4-7/2016)

Great idea for a session!

International Medieval Congress
Leeds, England, 4–7 July 2016
CFP: Monster at the Table

Session Sponsor: MEARCSTAPA (Monsters: the Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology Through Scholarly Theory and Practical Application).
Session Organizers: Larissa Tracy (Longwood University)
Session Presider: Larissa Tracy (Longwood University)


In line with the IMC Leeds theme “Food, Feast, and Famine” for 2016, MEARCSTAPA is looking for papers for a session titled “Monster at the Table.”

Monsters walk among us, and often, in medieval literature, they share our food and sit at our tables. Literary monsters take a variety of forms, and as such they interact with human actors in a multitude of ways. Sometimes they arrive to instruct the revelers at a feast, as in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, other times they human actors arrive to be instructed by the monster at the head table, as in Arthur and Gorlagon. Feasts are also sites for monstrous encounters when merrymakers are slaughtered, as in Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale. Monstrous feats are performed at feasts, as in Fled Bricrend. Monsters may dine in human form, upon fellow human beings, as in Richard Coer de Lyon or the story of Ugolino of Pisa in both Chaucer and Dante. Monstrosity often challenges the norms surrounding consumption just as it challenges social norms in terms of what is eaten or how it is eaten. Consuming food is a way of internalizing and assimilating the world, but “monsters” often defy assimilation, and excesses in consumption are often regarded as monstrous. In short, monsters are often at the table, whether we recognize them or not.

MEARCSTAPA is accepting abstracts on any aspect of monstrous feasts/feasting or monsters at the table in any medieval tradition. Abstracts of 200 words and a short bio should be sent to Dr. Larissa Tracy: kattracy@comcast.net no later than August 30, 2015.





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