Event Host: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS)
Short Description: Lecturer E. Jane Burns will present “Mermaids and Material Culture: Looking Eastward from Medieval France."
The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS) cordially invites you to attend the sixth lecture of our 2015-2016 series. Lecturer E. Jane Burns, Druscilla French Distinguished Professor Emerita and Professor Emerita of the Curriculum in Women’s Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will present “Mermaids and Material Culture: Looking Eastward from Medieval France."
Mélusine, a fourteenth-century snake-tailed woman who can fly, derives in part from medieval narrative traditions of fairies and mermaids. It is her excessive wealth, however, that strikes “wonder” and fear into onlookers at the court in Poitou. How might we draw on items of material culture used to characterize Mélusine’s lavish wedding celebration to help understand this ornately clad and bejeweled courtly woman in a more global context?
The lecture will be followed by an informal roundtable discussion with the speaker, and light refreshments will be served. Before the talk, the CMRS will also host an “open forum” (2:30 p.m., 455 Hagerty Hall) that will provide a unique opportunity for students and faculty to learn about the academic and career background of the visitor in an informal, conversational environment.
For more information, please contact cmrs@osu.edu or visit CMRS.