Medieval travel and exploration

This is the draft copy of the research paper read at the International Scientific Network and Business Forum on 29 May, 2015, at the University of Latvia; final copy is to be published in the conference proceedings (forthcoming).

The paper explores the image of India in European literature and culture from the High Middle Ages (c. 1200) to the twentieth century. Medieval travel accounts of India, many of which are regarded as fictional by both general public and scholars, would have appeared trustworthy to their medieval and early modern audiences. In many cases, however, the accounts would be read analogically as well as literally, and the paper highlights continuities and intertextual parallels between medieval and modern accounts of India. In all two tendencies have been observed in European representations of India: India as the ‘demonic double’ of Europe, the ‘Other’ and India as a patchwork, a multi-faceted assemblage of wonders and marvels.

An article in Approaches to Vínland. A Conference on the Written and Archaeological Sources for the Norse Settlements in the North Atlantic Region and Exploration of America. The Nordic House, Reykjavík 9-11 August 1999. Proceedings (Sigurður Nordal Institute Studies, 4), eds. Andrew Wawn & Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (Reykjavík, 2001), 88-104.

Deadline for abstract submission: May, 31st 2016
Place : Centre culturel de Cerisy-la-Salle (France, Normandy), May 32st – June 3rd 2017

The Colloquium is devoted to the history of fish, aquatic monsters and mammals in the northern seas (the English Channel, North Sea, Baltic Sea, Norwegian Sea, the North Atlantic), from antiquity to 1600. The colloquium is based on three themes:
–Knowledge and the Transmission of Knowledge : Medical Knowledge, Zoological Knowledge, Descriptions, Identifications
–Savoir-faire and Exploitation: aquatic farming, fishing, cooking, medicine
–Explorations – real and imaginary

The event is organised by the Centre for Research in Archaeology, Ancient History and the Middle Ages (CRAHAM, University of Caen Normandy, UMR6273) as part of the research programme ICHTYA and that of the International Research Group, GDRI Zoomathia. It belongs to the cycle of colloquia on Medieval Normandy, organised by the Office Universitaire d’Etudes Normandes in partnership with the Centre Culturel International of Cerisy la Salle.
Colloquium website : http://ichtya2017.sciencesconf.org/