CFP: ‘Early English Life Cycles’ (IMC Leeds, 2-5 July 2018)
(Deadline CFP: 15 September 2017)

We hope to bring together papers that deal with the human life cycle in Early English language and literature [c.500-c.1350] and show how this complex concept (with all of its biological, social and cultural aspects) influenced the lives, writings and artwork of the inhabitants of medieval England. Paper proposals are welcome from the following disciplines: literary studies, history, linguistics, onomastics and lexicography.

Possible topics/themes include but are not limited to:

-       Definitions, concepts, and constructions of the life cycle
-       The life course in literature and language
-       Individual remembrance of early life
-       Inherited cultural patterns for structuring experience
-       Constructions of narratives and expectations for past, present and future life.
-       Age and alterity
-       Age and gender
-       Intergenerational relations and/or conflicts
-       The life cycle and the Church
-       Saints in various stages of life
-       Care for the young, care for the elderly
-       Semantic field studies of (the various stages of) the human life course

Subsequent to the sessions we hope to publish the contributions as a volume of essays, with the goal of furthering interest in the topic.

Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words to Thijs Porck (Leiden University; m.h.porck@hum.leidenuniv.nlilto:m.h.porck@hum.leidenuniv.nl>) and Hattie Soper (Cambridge University; hcs56@cam.ac.ukhcs56@cam.ac.uk>).