Transfer of Cultural Products: France and the Mediterranean Area in the 12th-13th c. (I & II), sessions at the 54th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 9–12, 2019

These two sessions cosponsored by the IMS-Paris and the CESCM-Poitiers aim to explore the transfer of cultural products between France and the Mediterranean area during the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries.

Following the theory of Michel Espagne proposed in the eighties, the notion of “cultural transfer” can be understood in broad sense, as a process of interaction, a dynamics of semantic transformations which results from the passage of a cultural object from one context to another. The transfer can concern material as well as immaterial data: objects, ideas, forms, methods, technologies etc. Within the relations between France and Mediterranean area (notably with the Islamic or the Byzantine world), what kind of transfer of cultural products can we observe? Which/who were the vectors and the “bridges” of these exchanges? Where were the places of mediation? Any object that falls into a new context takes on a new meaning. What processes are involved in the appropriation of an object, its adaptation, what resistance to its integration, what reinterpretation and re-signification? In which way did it transform its new context?

Art historic, archaeological, epigraphic, historic and literary approaches are welcome. Participants are invited to submit papers on the following topics (non-exhaustive list):

• Translation into French; translation from French
• Islamic or Byzantine material objects brought to France
• The role of the crusades in the transfer of objects, texts, or mentality
• The role of pilgrimage in cultural exchange
• The go-betweens who assist in keeping the chain of transmissions functioning
• Hybridity in art forms, music, texts created in a climate of cultural transference

Session Organizer
Estelle Ingrand-Varenne, Université de Poitiers

Session Sponsors
IMS-Paris
CESCM-Poitiers

The Centre d’études supérieures de civilisation médiévale (CESCM) in Poitiers is one of the main research institution in Europe for teaching and research in the field of medieval studies. Founded at the end of the 1950’s, it gathers scholars in different disciplines (history, art history, literature, linguistics, archeology, and musicology) and hosts several publications, among which is the journal Cahiers de civilisation médiévale.

The International Medieval Society-Paris (IMS) is a non-profit association that welcomes international scholars of the Middle Ages in France and promotes international exchange with French colleagues. It organizes an annual symposium in Paris at the end of June and several meetings with senior scholars and graduate students all along the academic year.