Performing Death I: Grief and Emotion in the Medieval Mediterranean and Performing Death II: Ritual and Remembrance in the Medieval Mediterranean, sessions at 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University Online, May 9–14, 2022

Dying is inevitable; and, thus, caring for the dead became a defining characteristic of humanity – even predating the emergence of homo sapiens as a species. Yet, there appear to be significant differences across cultures as to how mourning is expressed and ritualized both in terms of physical and symbolic death. The medieval Mediterranean provides an opportunity to analyze such ritualization as expressed in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam within the same broad historical and regional context. Examining various Mediterranean traditions of mourning will help us better understand grief in the Medieval West and today.

Papers are sought that examine the emotional, social, gendered, and cultural contexts of mourning among Christians, Muslims, and Jews across the medieval Mediterranean. The aim is to better understand grief, both in the past and today. How was death understood and ritualized from an emotional point of view? What was the role of religion in establishing appropriate models and rituals? How was the expression of grief, whether in history, literature, or art, shaped by social norms, and expectations and by the emotional communities’ individuals belonged to? Was there an emotional Mediterranean culture of “lamenting” that transcended ethno-religious divisions?

Session organizer
Nuria Silleras-Fernandez, University of Colorado Boulder

Session sponsor
CU Mediterranean Studies Group/Mediterranean Seminar