Call For Papers





This interdisciplinary collection will contain essays that engage with
manifestations of sadistic and masochistic pleasure in medieval texts and
cultures. Such impulses may be implicit in the functioning of institutions
such as the schoolroom or the church or embedded within the very framework
of pre-modern European culture. Examining this *jouissance* around power,
control, dominance, and submission within medieval culture provides yet
unexplored insights into these premodern phenomena as well as into our own
presuppositions as to what the medieval means in relation to current
(kinky) sexual practices.



We are especially interested in arguments focused around visual culture,
gender, race and ethnicity, cultures on the borders/margins or
marginalized. Examinations of court/secular cultures will be prioritized.



Essays should explore the project’s central premise: that medieval texts
and cultures manifest a type of erotic thrill (*jouissance*) that resonates
with contemporary BDSM pleasures and yet in other ways differs in
articulation. Seminal texts on BDSM theory should be included.



Relevant topics include but are not limited the following:



*Please submit abstracts (250-500 words) or complete essays (8,000-10,000
words including references) to Christopher T. Vaccaro at cvaccaro@uvm.edu
<cvaccaro@uvm.edu>.*



*Abstracts are due by March 15th, 2020. We are hoping to have a complete
and polished manuscript by September 1st.*