The medieval bestiaries are undoubtedly peculiar. Real and mythological animals alike are accompanied by allegorical interpretations linking them to particular religious meaning. Among the many peculiarities this entails, there is the mystery of the whale. Not only can it appear as an island, tricking seafarers into going ashore until it suddenly moves and swims away; the mouth of the whale, when open, gives off a wonderfully sweet scent that makes smaller fish swim to their doom. Looking at both the medieval Latin bestiaries and the Christian discourse surrounding scent, holiness and seduction, the lecture traces this motif and tries to locate its cultural and literary origins. "Fragrance" in the Latin Middle Ages, the lecture will show, is a multi-layered discourse worth exploring. It might, after all, solve the mystery of how the whale got its fragrance.
Katja Weidner has just joined the University of Vienna as an Assistant Professor for Medieval and Late Latin Studies: Her research focuses on the interconnectedness of literature and non-literary discourse, methodologically following the premises of discourse theory and cultural narratology. After her first monograph, Erzählen im Zwischenraum (Narrating the In-Between), which explores the narratological implications of an earthly afterworld from Late Antiquity to the twelfth century, she is now working on her second monograph about "fragrance" in medieval Latin literature. Another book, a commented German translation of the Navigatio sancti Brendani (Herder) is currently in print, coming out in April 2022.
Zoom link:
https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/97413566507?pwd=bTJ4ZDBSelh1QmdidHNva1lEWW4xUT09
Meeting ID: 974 1356 6507
Passcode: 657640