Read moreAs part of the CUSO doctoral program in medieval studies, we are pleased to organize, on Monday 24 (afternoon) and Tuesday 25 April 2023, at the University of Geneva, an interdisciplinary conference on representations of gender-based violence and the care practices that respond to it in the Middle Ages. This symposium is organized from two perspectives. On the one hand, it will involve contributing to compensating for the lack of institutionalization of gender studies in university training in the human sciences and particularly in literature. While it is common for a teacher to be confronted with sources that depict sexual and gender relations, and the violence that can govern them, the liberation of speech in the contemporary era of #MeToo makes this conference an additional and unprecedented opportunity to nourish the interdisciplinarity of a rapidly expanding field of research in human and social sciences, and to participate in the social and intellectual movement that is interested in gender-based violence, its history and its recognition, as indicated, for example, by the training recently offered by the HETS of Fribourg, "Detecting gender-based violence: cross-views and institutional responses". In addition to this first concern, we would also like to work to compensate for the lack of solicitation of the medieval period in these fields. The political, social and historical questioning of filmmakers and novelists on sexual and gender violence, as well as on their physical and institutional reparation, their compensation or their symbolic management, through the intermediary of the medieval period, is a mechanism that has been used for a long time, as demonstrated by the first volume of the German novel saga by Ingrid Knocke and Elmar Wolrath, The Whore (Die Wanderhure), published in 2008 and adapted for the cinema in 2010, or the recent film by Ridley Scott, The Last Duel, on the rape of Marguerite de Carrouges, released in theaters last October. However, medieval studies still lack a certain legitimacy, in relation, for example, to the conference Scenes of rape in European literature, 2023th-30th centuries, which will be organized at the University of Haute-Alsace in October XNUMX, or even in the one organized on care in literature, last October, by Alexandre Gefen and Andrea Oberhuber. We are expecting proposals lasting XNUMX minutes, mobilizing various disciplines (literature, history, art, philosophy, theology, anthropology). Gender-based violence will be considered as sexual violence (rape, abduction, harassment), but also, and above all, as sexual violence, that is to say as a practice emanating from/affecting a social role based on one or more gender relations, in its various physical manifestations (confinement, deprivation, spatial segregation, exclusion or banishment), verbal (insult, humiliation, slander for various reasons and motives), psychological (manipulation, devaluation, contempt), economic (financial dependence, prohibition to work or assignment to imposed jobs) and political. The next step will be to study the gender of the practice of care, from the joint perspective of gender & care studies: who exercises it, who benefits from it, how, and according to what gender relations? The specific objective of this event is, ultimately, to observe the dynamics of power, abuse, reaction and compensation that vector violence and its reparation, as well as the impact of sex and gender on the latter. An intersectional approach will be favoured, capable of overcoming the polarisation, real but not necessarily automatic, between male-aggressor and female-victim, or between female-caregiver and male-cared-for. While it is true that some abuses or care practices have generally been attributed to one sex only – rape, for example, has long been understood as an act of violent sexual penetration by a man on a woman, while caring for the wounded knight is generally a woman's business – the best results emerge from a study that is able to integrate and discuss the polarization of sexes/genders, paying attention to other axes of inequality: relationships of age, social class, physical appearance and nature (humans, supernatural beings), ethnic or religious affiliation. It is also a question of questioning the use of certain contemporary categories and concepts (e.g. rape, victim, rape culture) in medieval studies, calling for the use of controlled and critical anachronism.

We invite all interested medieval researchers (doctoral students, postdoctoral students, or advanced researchers) to send us, to the email addresses below, their communication proposal in French or English, of about one page, accompanied by a brief Curriculum Vitae, in PDF format, by January 31, 2023: benedettaviscidi@gmail.com and rose.delestre@unige.ch. NB CUSO doctoral students will, as usual, have their transportation and meal expenses covered. Those who would like to attend and/or participate in the event without being attached to a CUSO university are welcome but will have to inquire about the reimbursement possibilities offered by their affiliated laboratories. 
—Scientific CommitteeRose Delestre (University of Geneva – University of Rennes 2)Yasmina Foehr-Janssens (University of Geneva)Fabienne Pomel (University of Rennes 2)Benedetta Viscidi (University of Padua – University of Geneva)
—Indicative bibliographyBaechle Sarah, with Harris Clarissa M., Rape Culture and Female Resistance in Late Medieval Literature. With an Edition of Middle English and Middle Scots Pastourelles, Penn State University Press, 2022. Bazan Iñaki, Some Remarks on Rape Victims in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, in Are Victims Forgotten by History? (Cf. infra).Bodiou Lydie, with Chauvaud Frédéric, Soria Myriam, Gaussot Ludovic and Grihom Marie-José (dir.), The Body in Tatters. Sexual and gender-based violence against women, PUR, 2016. Ducousso-Lacaze Alain, with Grihom Marie-José (dir.), Violence against women’s bodies, in Dialogue n° 208, Erès, 2008/2. Esposito Anna, with Franceschi Franco & Piccinni Gabriella (ed.), Violence against women. A look at the Middle Ages, translated by Marie-Ange Beaugrand, UGA Éditions, 2022Foehr-Janssens Yasmina, “Medieval Literature and Gender Studies: Successes, Obstacles and Challenges”, Francofonia 74 (2018), p. 21-37. Garnot Benoît (dir.), The victims, forgotten by history?, PUR, 2000. Gefen Alexandre, Repairing the world. French literature facing the 2017st century, José Corti, 2021. Gefen Alexandre, The idea of ​​literature, José Corti, 1982. Gilligan Carol, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, Harvard University Press, 27. Gonthier Nicole, “Rape victims before the courts at the end of the Middle Ages according to sources from Dijon and Lyon”, in Criminologie, 2/1994 (XNUMX), p. 9-32.Gravdal Kathryn, Ravishing Maidens. Writing Rape in Medieval French Literature and Law, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.Harraway Donna, “Situated knowledge: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective”, Feminist Studies 14 (1988), p. 575-599.Hammond Meghan, Kim Sue (dir.), Rethinking Empathy Through Literature, Routledge, 2014.Ibos Caroline, “Ethics and Politics of Care. “Mapping a critical category”, in Clio. Women, Gender, History 49 (2019) | Care work, p. 181-219. Laugier Sandra, “Ethics as the politics of the ordinary”, in Multitudes 37-38 (2009), vol. 2, p. 80-88. Lavergne Cécile, with Perdoncin Anton, Describing violence, in Tracés. Revue de Sciences humaines, 19 (2010). Lett Didier, with Noûs Camille, “Medievalists and the History of Women and Gender: Twelve Years of Research”, Genre & Histoire 26 (2020). Merlin-Kajman Hélène, Literature in the Time of #MeToo, Ithaca, 2020. Nussbaum Martha, Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and Public Life, Beacon Press, 1995. Paperman Patricia, Care and Feelings, Presses Universitaires de France, 2013. Parini Lorena, The Gender System. Introduction to Concepts and Theories, Seismo, 2006. Gulley Alison (ed.), Teaching Rape in the Medieval Literature Classroom: Approaches to Difficult Texts, Arc Humanities Press, 2018. Tronto Joan, Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care , Routledge, 1993.Vandeventer Pearman Tory, Women and Disability in Medieval Literature, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.Vandeventer Pearman Tory, Disability and Knighthood in Malory's Morte D'Arthur, Routledge, 2019.Viscidi Benedetta, «Rappresentazioni dello stupro nel Medioevo letterario di Francia: stato dell’arte con qualche proposta”, L’Immagine Riflessa 31/1 (2022), p. 79-118. Wolfthal Diane, Images of Rape: The “Heroic” Tradition and its Alternatives, Cambridge University Press, 1998.

"This post is a summary of information from our information monitoring"