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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