[Gandur] Fwd: Fwd: Strengleikar: Ralph O'Connor um ástleitnar stjúpur / Ralph O'Connor on the lustful stepmother topos

[Eva Þórdís Ebenezersdóttir]

 Kæru þjóðfræðingar

áframsendi hér auglýsingu um virkilega áhugavert erindi á Strengleikum Árnastofnunar næsta fimmtudag.

kv. Eva Þórdís
 
-------- Upprunalegt bréf -------- 
Efni: Fwd: Strengleikar: Ralph O'Connor um ástleitnar stjúpur / Ralph O'Connor on the lustful stepmother topos 
Dags: mánudagur 18 Júní 2012 10:21 GMT 
Frá: Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir <johannakatrin at gmail.com> 
Til: Eva Þórdís Ebenezersdóttir <ethe3 at hi.is> 
Tilvísanir: <322FF31C-FAEA-481F-A0F4-D07A0EA2152D at hi.is>
 
 
> 
> 
> Strengleikar
> Miðaldastofa / Medieval seminar
> Fimmtudaginn 21. júní kl. 15.15 / Thursday, June 21, 3.15 pm
> Staðsetning: Málstofa Stofnunar Árna Magússonar í íslenskum fræðum
>  Location: Árnastofnun seminar room
> 
> Ralph O'Connor
> Lecturer
> Departments of History, Celtic and English, University of Aberdeen
> 
> How to seduce your stepson and why it won’t last:
> 
> skirting the incest taboo in mediaeval Irish and Icelandic narrative
> 
>  
> The story known conventionally as the ‘lustful stepmother’ pattern, in which a woman tries unsuccessfully to initiate a sexual relationship with her stepson (or foster-son, or adopted son) and subsequently takes revenge on him, enjoyed wide popularity right across mediaeval Europe and the Near East. Rooted in the classical legend of Phaidra and Hippolytus and the biblical anecdote of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, most stories of this kind treated the female protagonist as a two-dimensional vehicle for a moralizing message about the depravity of woman. The great exceptions to this rule in the Middle Ages are the narrative literatures of Ireland and Iceland, in which lustful stepmothers played a range of more complex and interesting roles. My paper will compare the functions of the lustful stepmother in insular narrative, demonstrating the rich variety which such an apparently conventional topos can display when put to use by different authors for different purposes. I shall also offer some tentative suggestions as to why Irish and Icelandic treatments of this topos appear to deviate so sharply from the European mainstream.