Call for CHAPTER submissions: Marian Devotion and the Senses in the Middle Ages, EDITED VOLUME FOR BREPOLS, DUE BY 20 DECEMBER 2023

Call for CHAPTER submissions

Marian Devotion and the Senses in the Middle Ages

EDITED VOLUME FOR BREPOLS

DUE BY 20 December 2023

Pendant Brooch with Cameo of Enthroned Virgin and Child and Christ Pantokrator; late 1000s–1100s (cameo); 1100s–1300s (mount); Chalcedony cameo; gold mount with pearls, emeralds, garnets, sapphires, and a sardonyx intaglio; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Accession Number: 2007.9 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/477247

While some of the abstracts have been secured, we are still looking for ones that address the below topic for a volume being considered for publication with Brepols Publishers.

The volume seeks to explore the sensory approaches of the Marian cult as reflected in Eastern and Western Christianity. It aims to examine the private and collective expressions of Marian devotion in relation to the senses or intersections of senses (visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory) that generate forms of spiritual entanglements and mutual dependencies between human devotional practices, artefacts, and sites.

Suggested topics, on any geographic area or time period (between 300-1500) may include, but are not limited to:

  • pilgrimages to Marian shrines/holy sites (incubation, dreams, and Marian miracles);

  • devotion gestures based on: touch (e.g. touching the floor, kneeling, kissing), smell and its healing properties, sound, etc.;

  • active/passive use of the senses in Marian devotion;

  • inner senses/external senses in relation to Marian devotion;

  • Marian devotion, the senses, and the liturgy (ceremonies, sermons);

  • architecture/church interiors in relation to sensory effects and Marian devotion;

  • personal/collective devotional practices;

  • religious objects, the senses, and Marian devotion;

  • sensory deprivation, mystical experience, and Marian proximity;

  • visual representations and the senses: books and illustrations, paintings, mosaics, marbles, statues;

  • literature: liturgical dramas/plays; books.

Submissions from a variety of disciplines (and sources) are accepted including but not limited to: history, art history, visual culture, social history, cultural history, hagiography, religious studies, cultural studies, textual studies in a transdisciplinary perspective. The language of publication is English.

Please submit a 600-800 words abstract clearly underlying the main argument and the potential outcomes of the essay. All contributions should be original and previously unpublished.

Proposals should have an abstract format written either in PDF file or Word.doc and be accompanied by a short 700 words CV including e-mail, current affiliation, affiliation address, and academic position.

CVs should have the standard CV format; narrative bio formats are not accepted.

Please submit all relevant documents, as PDF or Word.doc, by 20 December, 2023, to the e-mail address: znorovszkyandrea@usal.es

Contact information:

Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain (znorovszkyandrea@gmail.com)

Nota Bene!

Submitted abstracts will be selected. Contextually, potential authors will be asked to submit their essays for the publication of the edited volume considered for publication with Brepols Publishers.

At this early stage, neither the editor, nor the publisher guarantees the publication of the essays. These are accepted for publication only after they undergo several reviewing procedures, initially by the editor, and then by two (2) reviewers. Alternatively the series editor might decide to review the material. Essays also need to fulfill formatting and language requirements.