Biennial London Chaucer Conference: Science, Magic and Technology
10-12 July 2015
Institute of English Studies, Senate House, London
Call for Papers
Papers are sought on all aspects of ‘Science, Magic and Technology’ in late medieval literature and culture and particularly within Chaucer studies. Approaches might include:
The presentation of scientific ideas in myth and poetry
Observation and naturalism in literature and art
Experiment and experience in science and literature
The occult sciences (astrology, magic, alchemy) and their relationship to literature
Technology as magic, magic as a technology
Scientific literatures and the literariness of science
Epistemology and taxonomy in late medieval writing
Technologies of writing, parchment making and codicology
Concepts of the material and immaterial worlds, the environment, astrology, astronomy and cosmology
Cartography; deep-sea and space exploration
The science of the senses, optics, sound or scent
The representation of medicine in literature or the literary modes of medical writing
Trade technologies in literature
Science, magic and technology in medievalism
Papers are welcomed on the work of Geoffrey Chaucer or, more broadly, on late medieval writing and culture.
Please send 250 word abstracts to Dr Isabel Davis; Birkbeck, University of London. i.davis@bbk.ac.uk by 1st September 2014.