Still Glowing from RMMRA-Denver
The Rocky Mountain Medieval & Renaissance Association (RMMRA) conference in Denver, April 11-13, was amazing, very thought-provoking and affirming, so while still glowing, I wanted to share a few things about how it went and what impressed me.
First, I volunteered to chair a session about male shame and honor in medieval texts, including the poem, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Three graduate students in the Institute for Medieval Studies at The University of New Mexico presented papers. To prepare, I read some literature on the psychology of shame, and also reviewed some literature on gift economies (Lewis Hyde's The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property, a cult favorite). The presenters seemed to assume at first that it was a binary: Either honor or shame, and that this was mostly related to warrior culture. In fact, I found that gift dynamics are inextricably tied in with these other dynamics of violence, honor, and shame, and I would go so far as to say that underlying gift dynamics might be the determining factors in whether an action yields honor or shame. The experience made me go out and get a few translations from the library, including poet W.S. Merwin's remarkable translation of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," which really prefigures the betrayal of Lancelot and the downfall of Arthur's round table.
I attended many excellent sessions, and they offered too much food for thought to cover here.
My own presentation was originally titled “How Gadamer Might Rethink Shakespeare & the Bible,” but I noticed that many presenters were fine-tuning their titles after the program had already been printed, so I decided to reevaluate mine. I changed it to, "Rethinking Shakespeare & the Bible with a little help from my friends (Hans Georg Gadamer and the Intertextual Defamiliarizers)." I joked that one day I'd have a band by this name.
My presentation was basically about how too many Shakespeare scholars assumed that most of the work in the field of Shakespeare & the Bible was already done, given the fat reference book by Naseeb Shaheen (1987 & subsequent editions), and his main predecessors Richmond Noble (1935), Thomas Carter (1905), and Charles Wordsworth (1864).
I claimed that, while there were exceptions in other books and articles that dug more deeply, these works were plagued by protestant and empirical biases, stemming from Luther (Scripture alone!) and from the empiricism that blossomed especially in the 1800s with the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859), five years before Charles Wordsworth published his book, which went through multiple editions and printings.
I also addressed the problem of confirmation bias: that many scholars look no more deeply into biblical allusions than to affirm their own assumptions about them, as well as their own biases (Protestant, Catholic, or otherwise).
Then I used ideas from Hans Georg Gadamer, Julia Kristeva, Robert Alter, and Viktor Sklovsky to suggest a path for addressing these shortcomings and improving the field.
Given that I was critical of Protestant and Empirical biases that originated at least with Charles Wordsworth, but which extended also to Naseeb Shaheen, I was pleasantly surprised after my presentation when I was approached by a woman who said she had been a student of Shaheen's and that she liked my presentation very much.
My session was also attended by a past president of RMMRA as well as the newly elected president, both of whom made very positive and affirming remarks about my presentation.
After my session, the next session in the same room included that newly elected RMMRA president, Todd Upton, who presented on Bernard of Clairvaux, and another scholar who presented on Franciscans, including Bonaventure, who wrote the second biography of Francis of Assisi. Those of you who have read my posts in the past know that I have researched and explored the possibility that the first two characters on stage in Hamlet, Francisco and Bernardo, may have been named after Francis of Assisi and Bernard of Clairvaux because of dissolved English Monasteries (Franciscan and Cistercian) and stories and themes from the lives of the saints that have parallels in Hamlet.
It was amazing to be in the room for the discussion of Bernard and Francis. I felt as if I had found my true clan.
For those of you new to my blog and posts on LinkedIn, here are some of my past posts about Bernardo and Francisco and their names in Hamlet:
SCOURGE AND MINISTER: BERNARD AND FRANCIS
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/03/scourge-minister-bernard-francis.html
CORRUPTED REFORMERS: WHY SOMEONE NAMED AFTER BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX MIGHT BE FIRST TO SPEAK IN SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/corrupted-reformers-why-someone-named.html
BERNARDO TALES: LAERTES & HAMLET RECONCILE, as do BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX & PETER ABELARD
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/12/bernardo-abelard-hamlet-laertes-reconcile.html
WHAT DO FRANCISCO & BERNARDO HAVE TO DO WITH SHAKESPEARE & THE BIBLE?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/12/what-do-francisco-bernardo-have-to-do.html
SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET FINDS A FATHER IN PROVIDENCE (not RI)
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/11/shakespeares-hamlet-finds-father-in.html
WHY BERNARDO & FRANCISCO ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE IN SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-bernardo-francisco-are-not.html
How Geographical Memory May Have Encouraged the Naming of Two Characters in Hamlet
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/07/how-geographical-memory-may-have.html
MELANCHOLY: LOST DELIGHT IN HAMLET & FRANCIS OF ASSISI
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/07/melancholy-lost-delight-hamlet-francis.html
SCHOLARLY SNOBBERY or ANTI-CATHOLIC BIAS?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/06/scholarly-snobbery-or-anti-catholic.html
Four Approaches to Francisco & Bernardo in Hamlet
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/04/four-approaches-to-names-of-sentinels.html
C. Elliott Browne on Francisco & Bernardo
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/05/c-elliot-browne-wrote-in-1876-that.html
TOP SIX REASONS Shakespeare probably named sentinel Francisco after Francis of Assisi
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/04/top-six-reasons-shakespeare-probably.html
FATHER ISSUES FOR HAMLET & FRANCISCO
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/shakespeares-hamlet-has-father-issues.html
MIGHT ART LOST IN DISSOLVED MONASTERIES HAVE HELPED CONNECT HAMLET'S FRANCISCO & BERNARDO TO THE SAINTS?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/04/might-lost-art-in-dissolved-monasteries.html
First, I volunteered to chair a session about male shame and honor in medieval texts, including the poem, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Three graduate students in the Institute for Medieval Studies at The University of New Mexico presented papers. To prepare, I read some literature on the psychology of shame, and also reviewed some literature on gift economies (Lewis Hyde's The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property, a cult favorite). The presenters seemed to assume at first that it was a binary: Either honor or shame, and that this was mostly related to warrior culture. In fact, I found that gift dynamics are inextricably tied in with these other dynamics of violence, honor, and shame, and I would go so far as to say that underlying gift dynamics might be the determining factors in whether an action yields honor or shame. The experience made me go out and get a few translations from the library, including poet W.S. Merwin's remarkable translation of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," which really prefigures the betrayal of Lancelot and the downfall of Arthur's round table.
I attended many excellent sessions, and they offered too much food for thought to cover here.
My own presentation was originally titled “How Gadamer Might Rethink Shakespeare & the Bible,” but I noticed that many presenters were fine-tuning their titles after the program had already been printed, so I decided to reevaluate mine. I changed it to, "Rethinking Shakespeare & the Bible with a little help from my friends (Hans Georg Gadamer and the Intertextual Defamiliarizers)." I joked that one day I'd have a band by this name.
My presentation was basically about how too many Shakespeare scholars assumed that most of the work in the field of Shakespeare & the Bible was already done, given the fat reference book by Naseeb Shaheen (1987 & subsequent editions), and his main predecessors Richmond Noble (1935), Thomas Carter (1905), and Charles Wordsworth (1864).
I claimed that, while there were exceptions in other books and articles that dug more deeply, these works were plagued by protestant and empirical biases, stemming from Luther (Scripture alone!) and from the empiricism that blossomed especially in the 1800s with the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859), five years before Charles Wordsworth published his book, which went through multiple editions and printings.
I also addressed the problem of confirmation bias: that many scholars look no more deeply into biblical allusions than to affirm their own assumptions about them, as well as their own biases (Protestant, Catholic, or otherwise).
Then I used ideas from Hans Georg Gadamer, Julia Kristeva, Robert Alter, and Viktor Sklovsky to suggest a path for addressing these shortcomings and improving the field.
Given that I was critical of Protestant and Empirical biases that originated at least with Charles Wordsworth, but which extended also to Naseeb Shaheen, I was pleasantly surprised after my presentation when I was approached by a woman who said she had been a student of Shaheen's and that she liked my presentation very much.
My session was also attended by a past president of RMMRA as well as the newly elected president, both of whom made very positive and affirming remarks about my presentation.
After my session, the next session in the same room included that newly elected RMMRA president, Todd Upton, who presented on Bernard of Clairvaux, and another scholar who presented on Franciscans, including Bonaventure, who wrote the second biography of Francis of Assisi. Those of you who have read my posts in the past know that I have researched and explored the possibility that the first two characters on stage in Hamlet, Francisco and Bernardo, may have been named after Francis of Assisi and Bernard of Clairvaux because of dissolved English Monasteries (Franciscan and Cistercian) and stories and themes from the lives of the saints that have parallels in Hamlet.
It was amazing to be in the room for the discussion of Bernard and Francis. I felt as if I had found my true clan.
For those of you new to my blog and posts on LinkedIn, here are some of my past posts about Bernardo and Francisco and their names in Hamlet:
SCOURGE AND MINISTER: BERNARD AND FRANCIS
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/03/scourge-minister-bernard-francis.html
CORRUPTED REFORMERS: WHY SOMEONE NAMED AFTER BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX MIGHT BE FIRST TO SPEAK IN SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/corrupted-reformers-why-someone-named.html
BERNARDO TALES: LAERTES & HAMLET RECONCILE, as do BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX & PETER ABELARD
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/12/bernardo-abelard-hamlet-laertes-reconcile.html
WHAT DO FRANCISCO & BERNARDO HAVE TO DO WITH SHAKESPEARE & THE BIBLE?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/12/what-do-francisco-bernardo-have-to-do.html
SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET FINDS A FATHER IN PROVIDENCE (not RI)
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/11/shakespeares-hamlet-finds-father-in.html
WHY BERNARDO & FRANCISCO ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE IN SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-bernardo-francisco-are-not.html
How Geographical Memory May Have Encouraged the Naming of Two Characters in Hamlet
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/07/how-geographical-memory-may-have.html
MELANCHOLY: LOST DELIGHT IN HAMLET & FRANCIS OF ASSISI
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/07/melancholy-lost-delight-hamlet-francis.html
SCHOLARLY SNOBBERY or ANTI-CATHOLIC BIAS?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/06/scholarly-snobbery-or-anti-catholic.html
Four Approaches to Francisco & Bernardo in Hamlet
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/04/four-approaches-to-names-of-sentinels.html
C. Elliott Browne on Francisco & Bernardo
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/05/c-elliot-browne-wrote-in-1876-that.html
TOP SIX REASONS Shakespeare probably named sentinel Francisco after Francis of Assisi
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/04/top-six-reasons-shakespeare-probably.html
FATHER ISSUES FOR HAMLET & FRANCISCO
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/shakespeares-hamlet-has-father-issues.html
MIGHT ART LOST IN DISSOLVED MONASTERIES HAVE HELPED CONNECT HAMLET'S FRANCISCO & BERNARDO TO THE SAINTS?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/04/might-lost-art-in-dissolved-monasteries.html
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