DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 23 SEPTEMBER 2022 FOR PROPOSALS
Two Sponsored Sessions of the
International Association for Robin Hood Studies (IARHS)
(1) The Mutable Ideologies of the Robin
Hood Tradition
(Session of Papers)
Contact: Anna Czarnowus, annaczarnowus@tlen.pl
Modality: Virtual
Robin Hood narratives, whether literary or other media
(cf. film), have always contained embedded ideologies. From social hierarchies of
the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 18th-century nostalgic
Anglo-Saxonism (taken up again in Romanticism, Victorianism, and Modernism) to
contemporary American designations, the Robin Hood tradition hosts conflicting
ideological perspectives. These conflicts ensure the tradition is diverse, and
interpretations of the story reproduce that diversity. Exploring the origins
and implications of these perspectives is key to scholarly analysis of the
trans-temporal and increasingly global Robin Hood tradition.
The Robin Hood tradition has never been objective or
ideologically naïve: alongside their undeniable entertainment value, the
narratives served to bolster, create, or attack ideological perspectives. Yet
diverse interpretations of the story coexist with each other, and apparently
mutually exclusive interpretations of the tradition can enhance its popularity.
This panel seeks papers that explore these ideological perspectives across
media, whether the traditional late medieval / early modern ballads, novels,
performances, art, music, and modern film. How are ideologies of the past still
relevant within medieval and post-medieval Robin Hood texts? How do
post-medieval ideologies contribute to or problematize the tradition?
Please send a 250-word abstract by 23 September 2022 to
the email annaczarnowus@tlen.pl and
simultaneously submit it to the Confex system for the ICMS: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi.
Proposals must be uploaded to the Confex system for consideration.
(2) Robin Hood Fantasies: Beyond Realism
and Verisimilitude (A Roundtable)
Contact: Alexander L.
Kaufman, alkaufman@bsu.edu
Modality: Virtual
For audiences of Robin Hood texts, there is a tendency to describe the
tradition as grounded in realism. This roundtable seeks papers that explore how
the medieval and post-medieval Robin Hood tradition negotiates the reality of
outlawry and the historical contexts associated with the outlaw, alongside
tropes that belong to genres such as speculative fiction, fantasy, science
fiction, fairy tales, and contemporary romance in literature and media. Have we
fully moved toward an un-real Robin Hood, and if so, what are the implications?
In focusing on the fantastical, this panel seeks to interrogate the value of
fiction as fiction.
The Robin Hood tradition has been connected in some
manner with a historical reality, and some scholars continue to seek the “real”
that is within literary texts or historical records. This panel further seeks
to underscore how the histories that are a part of Robin Hood texts are
themselves fictive, literary representations of a history, historical event, or
figure. We should begin to consider how Robin Hood literary and media texts
belong to the broad genre of fantasy and its numerous sub- and adjacent-genres.
Please send a 250-word abstract by 23 September 2022
to alkaufman@bsu.edu
and simultaneously submit it to the Confex system for the ICMS: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi.
Proposals must be uploaded to the Confex system for consideration.
