This session will bring together scholars working across boundaries of period, language, and subfield, to consider anew the configurations within which the earliest English poetry was made. Papers that brings together two or more subfields or disciplines that have been conventionally separated are especially welcome. Possible topics might include: influence across languages (e.g., Old Saxon and Old English, Old Norse and Middle English, Anglo-Norman and Latin); macaronic verse across the medieval period; understudied poetic conventions; theoretical approaches that cast new light on old assumptions; critical histories of the field. Given the long and complex history of studying the various topics brought together here under the umbrella of “early English poetics,” this session invites us to reflect upon new understandings of old literary traditions.

Please send abstracts of 250 words along with your name, affiliation, and postal and email addresses to jenniferlorden@gmail.com by September 15th 2018.