Call for papers: Aquatic Animals in the Global Middle Ages (Digital Workshop)

Olaus Magnus. Fishing net (Caen, University Library, Res-11052, p. 704)

Aquafauna has recently been the topic of several conferences and publications focusing on zoological knowledge, its transmission, and transformation. Our workshop aims to investigate the imagery of aquatic animals in literature, their symbolism, their metaphorical use, and widespread views and misconceptions about such animals.

We would like to propose a global perspective limited chronologically rather than geographically. Therefore,we ask for proposals for papers looking at the period between ca. 500 and 1500 from a broader perspective, trying to understand how aquatic animals made their way into literature, oral traditions, proverbs, idioms, and art. The comparative perspective will be welcome but is not necessary – we hope that different papers covering various chronological and geographical areas will provide a comparative outlook.

We invite abstracts for 20 minutes contributions which should be sent to Przemysław Marciniak (przemyslaw.marciniak@us.edu.pl) by March 20.

The workshop will take place online (via the ZOOM platform) September 27-28, 2021.

Organisers:

• Kirsty Stewart (Edinburgh)
• Tristan Schmidt (Istanbul/Katowice)
• Przemysław Marciniak (Katowice)Katarzyna Warcaba (Katowice)