Call for Papers

You are cordially invited to propose participation in a session
sponsored by the Société Guilhem IX at the

46th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
12-15 May 2011

Deadline for Proposals: 1 September 2010

Session 1: Saints Among the Troubadours

Saints mark the geography of the Troubadour world, and are invoked by poets both piously and in more subtle, and even profane, references. Hagiography has an important but at times neglected place in the Old Occitan corpus. This session invites participants to ask such questions as: What rhetorical and narrative roles do saints play in the literature of the Midi? What cultural roles are they shown playing? How does an understanding of particular saints, and the culture of relics and miracles at large, enrich our appreciation of Occitan society? What can Occitan hagiography tell us? Topics might include the use of saints to date and assign regions to texts; the Occitan translation of the Golden Legend and other hagiographic materials; the Sainte Foy controversy; religious theater in Occitan.

Session 2: Pronouncing Old Occitan: Tricky Points of Linguistics and Historical Phonetics (A Roundtable)

Participants are asked to choose a short text to read aloud which illustrates both the basics of Old Occitan pronunciation (for students, performers, and linguists from other fields) and also brings up a linguistic or phonetic problem for debate among engaged scholars.

Those interested in presenting a paper in Session I, or who would like to participate in the Roundtable should, by 1 September 2010, send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a completed Participant Information Form, preferably via e-mail, to:

Professor Sarah-Grace Heller
Department of French & Italian
The Ohio State University
200 Hagerty Hall
1775 College Road
Columbus, OH 43210

Phone: (614) 891-7654
Fax: (614) 292-7403
e-mail: heller.64@osu.edu

Find further information on the Congress Web site.