Language, Texts, and Gender in the Viking Diaspora
| March 30, 2009 | to | March 31, 2009 |
The call for papers has gone out for the fourth symposium run under the aegis of the Viking Identities Network, entitled ‘Language, Texts, and Gender in the Viking Diaspora’. It will take place at the University of Leicester on 30-31 March 2009. The full text of the call for papers follows:
Call for Papers
Language, Texts, and Gender in the Viking Diaspora
Viking Identities Network IV
30-31 March 2009
University of Leicester
The Viking Age is traditionally seen as the aggressive, militaristic expansion of a Scandinavian seafaring and warrior culture with imperialist ambitions. The Viking Identities Network is challenging this view and researching the implications of reconfiguring the period as a diaspora, with subsequent effects on ethnic, religious, linguistic, cultural and genetic identities. While the Viking ‘migrations’ were a physical movement, with the re-settlement of people and the re-establishment of key institutions, ‘diaspora’ can be seen as the consciousness of being connected to people and traditions of a homeland and to migrants from the same ethnic origin.
While the raiding warrior vikings were male, the settlements of the Viking diaspora included women, who may have been of Scandinavian origin or from the areas settled. This seminar aims to address the impact that the gender relations which pertained to the various areas of Viking settlement had upon their linguistic - and, later, textual - milieus.
Papers might address such questions as:
- To what extent is it possible to assess gender roles and gender construction within the various contexts of the Viking diaspora?
- How might we assess the role of women in the transmission of languages and myths during the period of Viking expansion and settlement?
- How can we account for the relatively ‘pure’ Norseness of the Icelandic language in relation to the genetic evidence which suggests that Iceland’s male settlers came from Scandinavia, while its female settlers came from the British Isles?
- What part can place-names, or mythology, play in the assessment of such matters?
- What part does gender play in later accounts of the diasporic movements?
Keynote lecture: Professor Neil Price (University of Aberdeen): ‘Bodylore: material narratives and the gendered creation of Norse mythology’.
The symposium is open to all, and postgraduates are particularly encouraged to offer papers or posters. We are looking for around fifteen 30-minute papers and up to five posters. To facilitate discussion, preprints will be made available on the internet in advance, and the overall number of participants will be limited to around 30.
There will be no conference fee, and lunch and refreshments will be provided free of charge for all participants who choose to stay in campus accommodation. Accommodation and evening meals will be available to participants at a cost to be confirmed shortly.
Please send an abstract (no more than 300 words) by e-mail to Jayne Carroll (jc237@le.ac.uk) no later than December 19th 2008.
http://vin.nottingham.ac.uk
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