A Study on the Secularization of the Image of Redhead in Medieval English Literature (82993)
Session Chair: Yu Jin
Monday, 15 July 2024 09:15
Session: Session 1
Room: Room A (Live-Stream)
Presentation Type:Live-Stream Presentation
For a long period, red hair has been mentioned and endowed with special connotations and assumptions in literature. As one of the time turning points, the Medieval Age left a huge impact on British society appearing in several spheres, especially in literature. Being the trait of the wild nation that historians define, red hair presented two opposite connotations in two periods. In this essay, three questions are put forward. The first one is what are the different connotations of red hair between the Anglo-Saxon period and the Medieval period in British literature? The second one is how the religious connotation of red hair affected the public image of secular literature and what is the specific manifestation of it. The third one is that with the process of the shift of the public cognization of redheads, what is the change of social power? In the theory of Northrop Frye, the dark mythological forces should be identified with the heathen empires that can be connected with the strong political slant of the Bible. Therefore, in this essay, I will select typical literature genres as examples including The Canterbury Tales and illustrate the original image of red hair before the period influenced by Catholicism in the Anglo-Saxon period as well as the religious origin of the redhead connotation and try to explain how these changed images became popular and well-known connotations and the transformation of the social power.
Authors:
Yu Jin, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule
Conference Comments & Feedback
Place a comment using your LinkedIn profileShare this Presentation
Comments
Powered by WP LinkPress