Institute Events & Announcements

March 29-31, 2012

Vagantes 2012: The Annual Traveling Graduate Conference of the Medieval Academy of America

35 student presenters, representing 22 institutions across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, will come together to share ideas, make connections, and enjoy all Bloomington has to offer, including tours of the Lilly Library and the IU Art Museum, and a concert by the Early Music Institute. Participants will be invited to attend the annual Reader’s Circle, an evening of camaraderie, conviviality and recitation in medieval tongues. Our keynote speakers will be Shannon Gayk, Associate Professor of English at Indiana University, and Jordan L. Zweck, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For more information, see the conference website here, and the full program here.

The whole conference is free and open to the public, but registration by March 5, 2012, is required.

Tuesday, January 17, 4.30pm

Lecture by Professor Michelangelo Zaccarello: “The World Upside Down: Carnival and the Carnivalesque in Italian Medieval and Renaissance Literature”

Anthropological readings of Carnival, especially after Bakhtin’s study on Rabelais, have stressed the importance of the inversion, or subversion, of social patterns during Carnival. Late Medieval and Renaissance Italian courts, on the other hand, often encouraged such celebrations, turning public performances and mass gatherings into a powerful instrument of political propaganda (as was the case in Lorenzo de’ Medici’s Florence). However, some social space and a broader audience were thus regained for popular or popularizing forms of literature that were previously relegated to a context of orality and folklore. This talk assesses developments in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italian literature, especially in texts associated with performance (the use of dialects in stage literature, the surfacing of folkloric texts in print, the linguistic and cultural opposition between the city and the countryside), and how such changes were affected by the contexts and rituals of Carnival celebrations.
(more on this event...)

Thursday, December 1, 4pm

Lecture by Don Skemer: “Sir Robert Tresilian at Tyburn Gallows, 1388: Text, Rumor, and Magic in Ricardian England”

The case of Sir Robert Tresilian, the Lord Chief Justice of England who was executed for treason in 1388, offers a fascinating opportunity to explore the power of words – legal or magical, religious or political, written or oral. Dr. Skemer’s paper evaluates contemporary references to Tresilian’s possible involvement in necromancy or more conventional magical practices and discusses how text and rumor spread variant versions of political news.
(more on this event...)

Other Medieval
Events of Interest

Wednesday, November 30, 7pm

Lecture by Alan Cameron: “The Life and Death of Hypatia”

Professor Alan Cameron of Columbia University will present "The Life and Death of Hypatia" at 7:00 Wednesday evening (Nov. 30th) in CG 1008 (located in the newest wing of the Business School). For more details, email Charles Aull.

Friday, December 2, 2:30 pm, Ballantine Hall 217

Lecture by Jacques Merceron: “Rutebeuf marchand de croisades et le système de la comptabilité spirituelle”

Alors que dès le milieu du XIIIe siècle, l’idée même de croisade commençait à devenir impopulaire tant parmi les aristocrates que parmi le « petit peuple » occidental, le poète pamphlétaire Rutebeuf fut amené à se faire « marchand de croisades ». Dans cette communication, je me propose d’examiner dans quelles circonstances et pourquoi il en vint à se faire le virulent propagandiste et polémiste d’une entreprise en partie discréditée, et surtout de m’interroger sur les moyens rhétoriques et les arguments mis en œuvre par le polémiste. Ce sera l’occasion d’examiner d’abord le lexique et les champs sémantiques mis en œuvre par Rutebeuf pour servir au mieux cette entreprise et d’essayer, dans un second temps, de mettre en évidence ce que j’appellerai le système de la « comptabilité spirituelle » appliqué à la thématique de la croisade. On verra enfin qu’au-delà du lexique de surface, ces textes de Rutebeuf recèlent un important non-dit qu’il conviendra de mettre en lumière si l’on veut comprendre en profondeur le fonctionnement de ce système de comptabilité spirituelle.

About the speaker: Prof. Jacques Merceron specializes in medieval French literature and comparative mythology. His research is particularly centered on religious issues as they relate to the intersection and interactions between “high” culture (clerical and aristocratic) and “low” culture (popular, rural and urban). He is also interested in the various aspects and meanings of laughter in various religious contexts (Saints’ Lives, miracle tales, religious parodies, etc.). His current research and books projects are focused on legends and miracles of the Virgin Mary in France from the Middle Ages onward, and on popular devotions, prayers, and parodies of the Sacred.