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This multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine the broad trajectory of devil beliefs in the period prior to 1650 in order to help explain what might be termed the general diabolisation of European thought as it is refracted through society and culture arguably from the middle of the fifteenth century. By surveying the variety in form and function of diabolical and demonic discourses and their social expression both at a series of particular historical moments, and over the longue durée, the conference aims to advance our understanding of the changing role of the devil in popular and elite culture and aetiology from late antiquity to its height in the early modern period.
The conference will be held 17 and 18 October 2008 at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies,
Victoria College in the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Keynote speakers include Richard Kieckhefer and Audrey L. Meaney.
The conference organisers invite submissions for individual 20-minute papers, for panels (generally consisting of three papers), and workshops or round-tables dealing with any aspect of demonism and its manifestation in the classical, medieval, and Early Modern traditions. Some possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Antichrist and the End of the World
Clerical and popular demonism
Comedic Devil
Constructions of the Sabbat
Demonic magic
Demonic possession
Demonologists—medieval and early modern
Demonology and witchcraft
Demons and heresy
Demons and sceptics
Demons in literature and on the stage
Devil in art
Devil in folklore
Demons in hagiography and exempla
Demonisation of the “Other”
Exorcism, lay and clerical
Incubi and succubi
Mysticism and diabology
New World demons
Protestant vs. Catholic demons
Women as healers, mystics, and witches
For information on how to submit abstracts for 20-minute papers contact Richard Raiswell (Univ. of Prince Edward Island) and Peter Dendle (Penn State Univ.) at:
devilconf@ma.psu.edu
or visit our website at:
http://www.devilconference.net
"The Devil in Society in the Pre-modern World" is sponsored by:
The Centre for Reformation & Renaissance Studies,
Victoria College, University of Toronto, and The Pennsylvania State University
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