CONFERENCE - Embodying life and death: The body in Anglo-Saxon England
The Anglo-Saxon period is characterised by significant cultural shifts and transformations. Emerging kingdoms, religious conversion, economic intensification, growing cultural contact and mobility result in increasing social complexity. Situated directly at the centre of these multiple transformations are the understudied Anglo-Saxon bodies, enacting, resisting and adapting to the ever changing world around them. The Anglo-Saxons employed the human form on elite gear and paraphernalia, found humour in the human anatomy as evidenced in their riddles and, in death, left behind their bodies often disposing of them with elaborate treatments, rich goods, and theatrical staging. From the Germanic ‘pagan’ to the Christian periods, the Anglo-Saxons considered and debated the power of the human body in real and metaphysical terms.
Despite immensely varied treatment, representation and conceptualisation of the body, a lacunae remains in scholarship on the Anglo-Saxon body. This represents a challenging field of discourse that can facilitate cross-period and cross-disciplinary study on the changing nature of body portrayal and perception across c. AD 400–1100. This interdisciplinary conference will examine and unfold the multiplicity and vibrancy of the body in the Anglo-Saxon world.
To register
Please visit anglosaxonbody.wordpress.com/registrationor scan the QR code below and submit a registration form via the online system. Tea, coffee, biscuits, and lunch are included. The deadline for registration is 9th October 2016. Spaces are limited, so please register early to secure your place.
Date: 22 October 2016, 9:45
Venue: Birley Room, Hatfield College, Durham University
Speaker: Various Speakers
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: http://www.anglosaxonbody.wordpress.com/registration
Audience: Public
Editor: Laura Spence