CFP: The Monstrous and the Uncanny: Figuring the Macabre

Kalamazoo 2007

The fourteenth century in Europe was marked by the appearance of the macabre, both in artistic and in literary production. Scholars submitting proposals for this session are encouraged to address different expressions of the macabre in medieval and early modern periods.

It has been noted that attitudes towards death changed after the Black Death epidemics, and that this change was reflected in the visual arts after the mid-1300s. However, was the appearance of the macabre related to this change? Why and how did the macabre develop? How differently did it figure death? Was it connected in some way to the continuing rise of the vernacular culture and various religious and secular reforms? In what way did oral and written discourses function in this development? What was the role of the beholder in the processes of reading and viewing the macabre? Scholars are encouraged to consider both visual and literary expressions of the macabre, and to make use of a wide range of methodologies.

Please e-mail paper abstracts to Elina Gertsman, gertsman@siu.edu