Understanding Monastic Practices of Oral Communication (Western Europe, Eleventh-Thirteenth Centuries)

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1 Research Foundation Flanders BOF-Research Fund Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Ghent University International Conference Understanding Monastic Practices of Oral Communication (Western Europe, Eleventh-Thirteenth Centuries) Ghent University (Belgium) May 2008 Conference centre Het Pand, Onderbergen 2, 9000 Gent Program

2 Conference abstract Hosted by Ghent University, the chief aim of this conference is to bring together scholars whose work represents current trends in the study of oral and non-written communication in monastic contexts during the high medieval period. In the past few decades, scholarship has increasingly focused on problems regarding communicative behaviour in monastic communities. The most successful angle from which scholars have approached this subject is one that marries a number of interdisciplinary theories regarding the social nature of communication with a strong interest in its material and discursive context. Most importantly, it has been argued that the choice between different written or non-written media was determined by the understanding that the function of a particular form of communication was always both direct (geared towards immediately perceptible goals such as administration, ritual purposes, etc.) and indirect (conferring status and leading to differentiation from other groups). Until now, this approach has been used almost exclusively to reach a better understanding of the function of written sources. Papers presented at this conference by distinguished international scholars as well as younger scholars of great promise will show that it is also applicable to the field of non-written communication. Although literate behaviour was an indispensable part of monastic life, members of such communities exchanged considerable amounts of information for which no written media were deemed necessary or which did not make a complete transition into written form. The organizers wish to thank the Research Foundation-Flanders, the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of Ghent University and Brepols Publishers for kindly sponsoring this conference. Scientific committee Prof. dr. Steven Vanderputten (steven.vanderputten@ugent.be), Ghent University Prof. dr. Georges Declercq (georges.declercq@vub.ac.be), Free University of Brussels Prof. dr. Jeroen Deploige (jeroen.deploige@ugent.be), Ghent University Dr. Brigitte Meijns (brigitte.meijns@arts.kuleuven.ac.be), Catholic University of Louvain Dr. Elisabeth Van Houts (emcv2@cam.ac.uk), Cambridge University Prof. dr. Wim Verbaal (wim.verbaal@ugent.be), Ghent University Organizing committee Prof. dr. Steven Vanderputten, Ghent University Prof. dr. Georges Declercq, Free University of Brussels Prof. dr. Jeroen Deploige, Ghent University Dr. Elisabeth Van Houts, Cambridge University 2

3 Friday 23 May Registration and coffee Welcome by Steven Vanderputten Session 1: Examining the politics of non-written communication (session chair: dr. Brigitte Meijns) Prof. dr. Gerd Althoff (Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster, "Oral and non-verbal communication (by signs and gestures) in monasteries focussing on St. Gall and the work of Ekkehard IV" Drs. Wojtek Jezierski (Stockholms Universitet, "Verba volant, scripta manent? The limits of speech, the politics of silence and the practical logic of the institution in some monastic conflicts of the High Middle Ages" Prof. dr. Steven Vanderputten (Ghent University, "A compromised inheritance. Monks, noblemen and the enactment of competing social realities in early-twelfth-century Flanders" Coffee break Session 2: Traces of orality in liturgy, customs and material culture (session chair: prof. dr. Georges Declercq) Prof. dr. Susan Boynton (Columbia University, "The oral transmission of monastic customs and liturgical practice in the eleventh century" Dr. Diane Reilly (Indiana University, "The educative function of oral lections and their images in Cistercian monasteries" Dra. Tjamke Snijders (Ghent University, "Discursive and formal transformations of hagiographical tradition in the matins liturgy of some high medieval Benedictine houses" Lunch Keynote lecture by Dr. Elisabeth Van Houts (Cambridge University, "Private conversations amongst monks and nuns ( )" 3

4 Coffee break Session 3: Traces of orality in the transmission of memory (session chair: prof. dr. Steven Vanderputten) Dr. Marie-Anne Polo de Beaulieu (CRNS, "Traces d'oralité dans les recueils d'exempla Cisterciens, XIIe-XIIIe siècles" Prof. dr. Geoffrey Koziol (University of California, Berkeley, "What Charles the Simple told the canons of Compiègne: oral and written transmissions of memory in the Genealogia Dictata a Karolo Rege" Prof. dr. Edina Bozóky (Université de Poitiers, edina.bozoky@wanadoo.fr): "Oralité et fabrication de légendes hagiographiques" Break Keynote lecture by Prof. dr. Peter Dinzelbacher (Universität Wien, peter.dinzelbacher@aon.at): "Orality in visionary literature" Speakers dinner 4

5 Saturday 24 May Session 4: Talking shop 1 - educating the monastic mind (session chair: prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld) Drs. Mirko Breitenstein (Technische Universität Dresden, mirko.breitenstein@mailbox.tudresden.de): "Real or fictitious dialogues between a master and a pupil in a medieval monastery" Prof. dr. Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona, aclassen@u.arizona.edu): "Performance, orality, and communication in medieval women convents in light of the plays of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim and the Tristan tapestry of the Wienhausen convent" Coffee break Session 5: Talking shop 2 - voicing the monastic mind (session chair: prof. dr. Jeroen Deploige) Dr. Julie Barrau (Cambridge University, jb534@cam.ac.uk): "Can we tell how good monks were at speaking Latin?" Prof. dr. Wim Verbaal (Ghent University, wim.verbaal@ugent.be): Oleum de saxo durissimo: Bernard of Clairvaux and his poetics of silence Dr. Mette Bruun (University of Copenhagen, mbb@theol.ku.dk): "Grunts, murmur and frowning: Bernard of Clairvaux on the communicative function of gestures, sounds and facial expressions" Lunch Keynote lecture by Prof. dr. Marco Mostert (Utrecht University, marco.mostert@let.uu.nl): "Orality, non-written communication and the future of monastic studies" Conclusions and discussion 5