With a decidedly interdisciplinary agenda, and focusing on Medieval and Early Modern Europe, this conference investigates the image and imagery of women, as well as the concepts attached to both. In suggesting an approach capable of integrating diverse aspects, its aim is to complement the research so far, which has tended to focus either on historical studies concerning influential female individuals and writers, or on works scrutinizing the literary imagery relating to women.

Argument

With a decidedly interdisciplinary agenda, and focusing on Medieval and Early Modern Europe, this conference investigates the image and imagery of women, as well as the concepts attached to both. In suggesting an approach capable of integrating diverse aspects, its aim is to complement the research so far, which has tended to focus either on historical studies concerning influential female individuals and writers, or on works scrutinizing the literary imagery relating to women. An interdisciplinary approach seems needful, seeing that references to multiple levels of knowledge – including contemporaneous cultural debates and controversies – are sedimented in Medieval and Early Modern texts; by exploring these contexts, research may shed further light on the ‘history’ of women, and (re-)trace the path that has led to the ‘construction’ of modern notions of ‘woman’. With lectures by leading international scholars from different disciplines related to Medieval and Early Modern studies, the conference will address the following questions (among others): which images and imagery are related to women in Medieval and Early Modern European Literatures; in which ways is the female body imagined in, for instance, literary, medical, philosophical, and legal texts; is there an identifiably male perspective on the female body and soul?  The respective contributions will be published in a volume collecting the conference proceedings.

Programme

June 15

• 15:00-15:15: Registration
• 15:15-15:30: Opening Remarks (Gaia Gubbini)
• 15:30-16:15: Joachim Küpper (Freie Universität Berlin), "The Woman’s Portrait in Pre-Petrarchan Love Poetry".
• 16:15-17:00: Gaia Gubbini (Freie Universität Berlin), "The Fantas(ma)tic Woman in Medieval Romance Literature (Langue d’Oc; Langue d’Oïl; Ancient Italian)".

17-00-17:15: Coffee Break

• 17:15-18:00: Outi Merisalo (University of Jyväskylä), “Femina uero non tantum emittit [sudorem] quantum uir. quia non est tanti caloris”: Female Physiology in the Late Medieval Medical Bestseller De spermate".

June 16

• 10:30-11:15: Béatrice Delaurenti (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris), "L’imagination de la vetula (XIIIe-XIVe siècle)".
• 11:15-12:00: Kirsten Dickhaut (Universität Stuttgart), "The Hammer of the Witches and the Perspective on Women in Early Modern Italy".

12:00-14:00: Lunch Break

• 14:00-14:45: Iolanda Ventura (Université d’Orléans, Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes), "The Image of Woman in 18th Century Collections of Legal Cases".
• 14:45-15:30: Massimo Ciavolella (University of California, Los Angeles), "Dante’s ‘femme fatale’ (Inferno V)".

15:30-16:00: Coffee Break

• 16:00-16:45: Andreas Kablitz (Universität zu Köln), "Beauty and Imagination in Petrarch's Canzoniere".

16:45-17:15: Round Table Discussion