Call for papers for two sessions organized by the The Medieval Chronicle Society at the 44th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, 2009 Session one:
Authorship in Medieval Chronicles Decades ago, literary theorists were busy writing about the “death of the author”. Today we are witnessing what could be called a "return of the author", as there is an increasing number of studies focusing on the idea of authorship. Fortunately, this has also spawned a renewed interest in certain medieval writers, such as Chaucer, Marie de France, Chrétien de Troyes, Christine de Pizan, Dante, and others. However, authors of historical texts--chronicles, annals, journals, and historical compilations--, have received considerably less attention. The purpose of this panel is twofold: i) to raise interest in the idea of authorship in medieval historiography, and ii) to examine the authorial figures of various medieval historians. The basic questions that this panel will explore are the following: * can medieval historians be considered "authors" in the medieval sense of the word?
* what do medieval historians say about their own work, and about themselves as "writers"? Other possible presentation topics include but are not limited to: * authorial personae in medieval historiography;
* historians who claim or deserve the title of "author";
* words or phrases that historians use to describe themselves;
* authorship and authority in historical texts;
* the relationship between authorial and social/political/gender identity;
* historians vs. compilers;
* historians vs. scribes;
* multiple authorship. Proposals not directly related to the announced panel theme may also be considered.
Session two:
Open session
This session is open to all topics related to medieval chronicles.
Proposals (title and an abstract of about 250-300 words) should be sent by e-mail to Cristian Bratu (Cristian_Bratu@baylor.edu) by
September 15 2008. Inquiries are welcome. ____________________________
Dr. Cristian Bratu
Baylor University
Division of French & Italian
http://homepages.baylor.edu/cristian_bratu/call-for-papers/