Here it is, the call for papers for next year's session. We are all looking forward to the submissions.
Call For Papers: Hell Studies
The Societas Daemonetica is seeking papers
for the session “Hell Studies”, which will take place at the 49th
International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 8-11, 2014, in Kalamazoo,
Michigan (USA).
The
suggested theme for this year's Hell Studies session is “Jailbreaking Hell,”
and focuses on its often porous border, those who cross it, by what means, and
for what ends.
From
hauntings to Hell-mouths to the Harrowing, the ranks of those who saw the
inside of Hell and returned to Earth to tell about it swelled throughout the Middle
Ages. In the Anglo-Saxon period the Devil was at once banished to Hell and
simultaneously active in the world. If he was cast down with the angels, how
could he then appear in Eden to precipitate the Fall of Man, or in the desert
thousands of years later to tempt Christ to sin? How permanent was it meant to
be when, in the Gospel of Nicodemus, Christ cast the terrified Devil, bound and
gagged, into the mouth of an anthropomorphized Hell – especially in light of
the fact that he then immediately freed the pre-Christian fathers in the
Harrowing? Even tormented pagans, doomed to an eternity in Hell, sometimes
climbed to the surface at night to warn would-be sinners away from their
mistakes. Who were their wardens, what were their routes, and how was their
return guaranteed?
For this
year's session, we are asking about the boundaries of Hell itself, as well as
those figures who pass through (and around) its gates, in literature, theatre,
theology, and art. What can be learned about the medieval people interacting
with these representations and ideas, and in addition what can these theories
and portrayals tell us about ourselves as their inheritors?
As mentioned above, “Jailbreaking Hell” is
this year's suggested theme. Submissions need not unnaturally restrict
themselves to the theme, but preference may be given to those that comment upon
or substantially interact with it.
Please send polite proposals of no more
than 300 words to Richard Burley at societas.daemonetica@gmail.com
by September 15, 2014. Early submissions are appreciated.
Richard Burley
North American Co-ordinator
Societas Daemonetica
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