Kalamazoo,2010)

CFP for International Congress on Medieval Studies 2010

Picturing Crusade: Remembrance and Negotiation

The task that confronted the earliest crusaders to the Holy Land was the
formation of a new kingdom and, by extension, the establishment of that
kingdom’s character. Conventional pictorial expressions of identity were
insufficient for the unique geographical, political, religious, and
cultural context that defined the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, subject as
it was to the historical exigencies of the eastern Mediterranean and the
shifting demographics of its component principalities. Arguably, the
success of the synthetic “crusader art” that emerged in response to these
needs may be gauged by its persistent influence on the imagination of the
West, long after the definitive loss of Latin holdings in the Levant.

Accordingly, this session hopes to sketch the parameters of a new crusader
art, an art that emerged in the wake of the failure of the enterprise that
was the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. We aim to address new or
little-explored visual modes occasioned by the loss of territories in the
East and the attendant cultural aftershocks. With this goal in mind,
appropriate topics include (but are not limited to) the assertion of
poignant relations to the history of the Latin Kingdom, manifestations of
cultural or religious identity predicated on the crusades, the adoption of
new political or devotional practices, commemorations of the crusades, and
articulations of loss or desire after the collapse of the Latin Kingdom.

DEADLINE FOR PAPER PROPOSALS: September 15, 2009

Paper proposals should consist of the following:
1. Abstract of proposed paper (300 words maximum)
2. Completed Abstract Cover Sheet (available at:
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions.html#ACS)
3. CV with home and office mailing addresses, e-mail address, and phone
number

Abstracts and enquiries should be directed to:

Richard Leson, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
(lesonuwm.edu)

Lisa Mahoney, Northwestern University
(l-mahoneynorthwestern.edu)