CFP Sep 3, 2014

Rethinking Medieval Maps (Kalamazoo, 14-17 May 15)

Kalamazoo, Michigan
Deadline: Sep 15, 2014

Laura Whatley, Auburn University Montgomery

50th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 14-17, 2015), Kalamazoo, Michigan

[1] Rethinking Medieval Maps I: The Unmapped, Marginalized and Fictitious
[2] Rethinking Medieval Maps II: Evidence for the Use and Re-Use of Maps
[3] The Eye of the Dragon: Viewing a Medieval Iconography from the Other Side

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[1] Rethinking Medieval Maps I: The Unmapped, Marginalized and Fictitious

This panel is devoted to the cartography of spaces that are far—either geographically or conceptually—from the umbilicus terrae at Jerusalem and the seemingly well-known confines of Europe. Proposals are invited for papers that explore the less privileged aspects of medieval maps: the mapping of the unknown, negative space, and things omitted from
maps; the inhabitants of the margins, monsters, and marginalized peoples; and the cartography of the fictitious or counterfactual. While we seek papers that engage closely with the details of the maps themselves, we welcome proposals that highlight new approaches to maps across time and space.

Papers are expected to be amply illustrated with high-quality images of the maps discussed.

Please send your title and abstract (250 words), together with a short CV, to chet.van.duzergmail.com and LauraWhatleyferris.edu by September 15, 2014.

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[2] Rethinking Medieval Maps II: Evidence for the Use and Re-Use of Maps

P.D.A. Harvey has written that “Medieval Europe was a society that functioned largely without maps”—and we take this statement as a call for a closer look at how medieval Europeans engaged with maps when they did resort to them. What evidence do we have, either from maps themselves, their contexts, or from textual sources, about how medieval maps were used? What about cases in which maps were designed for one purpose, but employed for another? What do these uses and re-uses tell us about the place of maps in medieval society, and their connection with broader developments in visual or material culture?

Papers are expected to be amply illustrated with high-quality images of the maps discussed.

Please send your title and abstract (250 words), together with a short CV, to chet.van.duzergmail.com and LauraWhatleyferris.edu by September 15, 2014.

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[3] The Eye of the Dragon: Viewing a Medieval Iconography from the Other Side

Contact Person:
Saygin Salgirli, Sabanci University: salgirlisabanciuniv.edu

From the iconic heroism of Saint George to the resolute piety of Margaret of Antioch; from the arrow-shooting Bahram Gur to anonymous spear-wielding riders, slayers of dragons have received considerable art historical attention. Individual slayers, as well as the iconography itself have been extensively studied and critically contextualized to reveal multi-layered meanings and changing identities. In his study on the Islamic Rider of the Gerona Beatus, O. K. Werckmeister demonstrated how, in the context of the Reconquista, the identity of the slayer could switch from good to evil, while Oya Pancaroglu argued that in Medieval Anatolia slayer images were both products and facilitators of cross-cultural exchange. Dragons and other monsters have been under the lens of art historians, too. Michael Camille and Debra Strickland have emphasized their roles as surrogates for social types and political adversaries. In that sense, the victims of the slayers, though independent of the iconography, have also been studied. However, it is difficult to say that the perspectives of the victims have received equal attention.

This panel calls for papers that will look at the slayer iconography from the position of the slain rather than the slayer. It seeks papers that will approach the image visually and conceptually from bottom up and explore alternative and innovative interpretations. What can this switch of gaze reveal about the relationship between the dragon and the slayer? In what novel ways can we interpret the visual asymmetry between them? Would it correspond to actual social asymmetries, or to their subversion? Does the diagonal of the spear pin down and stabilize differences and antagonisms, or does it cut across and mediate between them? Especially welcome are papers that move beyond Western European examples and provide comparative perspectives.

Due date for the abstracts (approximately 250 words) is September 15, 2014.

Reference:
CFP: Rethinking Medieval Maps (Kalamazoo, 14-17 May 15). In: ArtHist.net, Sep 3, 2014 (accessed Mar 29, 2024), <https://arthist.net/archive/8263>.

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