International Courtly Literature Society Conference, British Branch
10th - 11th April 2017
University of St Andrews

Featuring a roundtable discussion with Prof. Elizabeth Robertson (Glasgow), Dr Craig Taylor (York) and Prof. Bettina Bildhauer (St Andrews)

CALL FOR PAPERS

Building on our 2015 conference, which explored the concept and boundaries of courtliness, the 2017 meeting of the ICLS British Branch focuses on the theme of margins and asks : what can the concept of marginality tell us about the relationship between the court and courtliness in medieval literature ? To what extent can we identify the/a court’s margins ? Who or what resides there ? When, where and how are margins determined, challenged or even rewritten ? How might texts and artefacts be marginal to the court yet central to courtliness (or vice versa) ? How might courtliness act as a means to create margins ? Does courtliness change at the margins of the court ?

Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers addressing the following themes :

• The marginalising of texts, objects, behaviours or people ; the criteria for inclusion or exclusion within courtly contexts (e.g. gender, behaviour, bodies, class, race).
• Margins as physical spaces/the geography of the court (e.g. its furthest limits and reaches ; its centres and peripheries ; inside and outside ; the court and the otherworld).
• Manuscripts and their margins, whether in a physical sense or in terms of their transmission or translation.
• Border and contact zones (e.g. between courts, texts, peoples, languages).
• Margins between the living and the dead ; between the courtly and non-courtly.
• The question of boundaries, whether literary, linguistic, or generic.
• Power and marginality ; the instability of margins.

Proposals on other topics relevant to the conference theme and Society’s aims are also welcome. Papers may be on any area of medieval literature and culture.

To propose a paper, please send an abstract of 200-300 words to Dr Vicky Turner (vct2 chez st-andrews.ac.uk) by Friday 18th November 2016.