CFP: Meanings of Erasure
Session at the 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, 14-17 May 2015
Deadline: 15 September 2015
Recent scholarly interest in whiteness, emptiness, and material destruction that pervade medieval visual culture demonstrate a shift in focus: where art historians have historically focused on figuration, they now turn to the instances of material absence. This session will explore the notion of erasure and its function in transforming the object being partially or completely defaced, expunged, rubbed out. How does erasure augment and subvert the meanings of the original image? What does it tell us about the process of engagement with medieval material culture? Does erasure ever equal silence, or does it announce itself as a loud presence on manuscript pages, stone exteriors, and wood and canvas surfaces? And what of the erased word: how does that compromise or transmute the complex text-image relationships? Submissions from scholars in any discipline are welcomed.
Please send your abstract, along with the paper proposal form (which can be found here: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html), to Elina Gertsman at exg152@case.edu, by September 15, 2014.
Medieval Art Research 