* CALL FOR PAPERS *
The International Medieval
Society in Paris (IMS-Paris) is soliciting abstracts for individual papers and
proposals for complete sessions for its 2013 symposium organized around the
theme of “Color" in medieval France.
From the beginning of the
Middle Ages, color was as connected to the visual and performing arts as it was
to letters, theology, science, the livelihoods of medieval people, and their
way of relating to the world.
Long before Vasari’s famous
distinction between colore and disegno, medieval artists and musicians had
recognized the great aesthetic, semiotic, and rhetorical potential of color.
From a musical and rhetorical standpoint, the concept of color and the quality
of ornatus both signified embellishment. In many ways such embellishments
resulted in devices in musical notation that were intended as visualizations of
the aural experience. These visualizations were derived from the definition of
categories distinguished by aural cues, such as the symbolism and
classification of church modes, whose qualities of were meant to be readily
recognized by listeners.
As cultural references,
colors–and the terms that described them–were subject to variations in meaning.
In their material form of colorings and pigments, they were a commodity and a
social signifier. The exoticism of these valuable substances could denote
luxury and prestige down through the Middle Ages, from the purple pages of
precious manuscripts to the dyes of clothing regulated by sumptuary laws. Yet
color could also stigmatize or exclude, for medieval people classified,
categorized, and imparted meaning by associating certain colors with specific
minority groups and social hierarchies. This 'semiotizing' activity was
crystallized in heraldry. Nevertheless, categories were not consistently mapped
to colors. The variability of 'color coding' in medieval romance, the visual
arts, or from one region to the next tests the limits of schematic, rigid views
of color symbolism.
Meditations on color in
literature, as in philosophy and theology, point to the agency of color, so
that color is not solely a thing seen, but a potential to make things happen.
The theology of light, through its attendant emphasis on color, intersected
with the later reintroduction of the study of optics into the West via Latin
translations of Arabic works that built upon ancient authors, giving rise to
the development of theories of perspective, light, and color.
This symposium welcomes
papers about color from all disciplines. In addition to approaches to color and
light in medieval science and art (including the techniques for making
colorings; the use of silver, gold, lapis lazuli and gemstones; grisaille and
the absence of color), we invite analyses of the economics of color, the lexis
of color, the symbolics and meaning(s) of color(s) in social history and
literature, and approaches to color in philosophy, theology, and music
(notation, embellishment, use of mode).
Proposals of 300 words or
less (in English or French) for a 20-minute paper should be e-mailed no later than 1
December 2012. Each should be accompanied by full contact information, a CV,
and a list of audiovisual equipment you require.
Priority will be given to
papers that address the French or francophone Middle Ages. Please be aware that
the IMS-Paris submissions review process is highly competitive and is carried
out on a strictly blind basis. The selection committee will notify applicants
of its decision by e-mail by 20 December 2012.
Titles of accepted papers
will be made available on the IMS-Paris web site. Authors of accepted papers
will be responsible for their own travel costs and conference registration fee
(35 euros, reduced for students, free for IMS-Paris members).
The IMS-Paris is an
interdisciplinary, bilingual (French/English) organization that fosters
exchanges between French and foreign scholars. For the past ten years, the IMS
has served as a centre for medievalists who travel to France to conduct
research, work, or study. For more information about the IMS-Paris and the
programme of last year’s symposium, please visit our website.
Source: CPF
Source: CPF
