Weibliches Charisma. Figurationen von Macht und Herrschaft in England und Frankreich (700–1500)

Teilprojekt	08 – TP Dumitrescu
Fachbereich	English Medieval Studies
Spannungsfelder	Personalität und Transpersonalität Kritik und Idealisierung
Interdisziplinäre Transkulturalitätswerkstätten	Materielle Aspekte von Macht und Herrschaft Frau(en) des Herrschers/Weibliche Herrschaft

Das Teilprojekt widmet sich gezielt Diskursen über weibliche Akteure und den ihnen in Literatur und erzählenden Quellen zugeschriebenen Ausprägungen von Macht und Herrschaft im vormodernen England und Frankreich in der Zeit von 700 bis 1500. Es stützt sich dabei auf ein breites Spektrum von Forschungsarbeiten zu Charisma, Verzauberung, Anmut und Berühmtheit, verstanden als weiblich konnotierte Aspekte von Macht und Herrschaft, die Frauen in die Lage versetzen, Einfluss auf Andere auszuüben – abseits der traditionellen, von Männern geprägten Strukturen.

 

Abstract

This project aims for a better understanding of elite women’s power in medieval Europe by focusing on the ways their personas are constructed through charismatic strategies, either their own or as depicted in medial representations. The emphasis is on charismatic strategies that are transgressive, either because they counteract masculine power structures or because they incorporate seemingly “negative” qualities (vulnerability, sin, secrecy, etc.). As a result of the work in the first phase of the SFB, the second phase of our project will focus on ways that elite networks and assemblages (of people, texts, objects, etc.) assist the construction of feminine charismatic personas. Conversely, it will also examine how elite groups are created and reinforced by deliberate charismatic strategies.

This project argues for a ‘charisma complex’, an umbrella term for a nexus of power, fascination, fame, enchantment, and emulation. The agency of individuals portrayed as charismatic is often close to power, though it is not always active political power. Such persons elicit fascination, the desire to know, possess, or even destroy. They acquire authority and interest through means that can seem magical or otherworldly. They often become famous, or enjoy powerful resonance in their immediate context. Finally, audiences of the charismatic person often attempt to copy their gestures, habits, language, or style of dress. The project does not argue that particular historical or literary figures truly were charismatic; the best we can say in most cases is that people had an interest in representing them as charismatic. Rather, this project aims to examine representations of charismatic performances to look at the strategies they depict. Max Weber understood charisma as something followers ascribe to their leader, and can just as easily take away. This project approaches it as a phenomenon that arises in the exchanges between performers and audiences, patrons and authors, texts and generations of readers.

Building on the first phase of the project, this new phase will feature increased attention to how the power exercised by premodern women is created within and shaped by elite feminine networks and assemblages, as well as shaping notions of elite status, identity, and image. It draws on recenthistorical research in medieval studies that has emphasized women’s kinship as an important factor in royal power, on work in book and art history revealing the roles of women in literary creation (especially by being patrons of women’s saints’ lives), and on ongoing feminist trends in literary criticism. On a theoretical level, the project will continue using performance and celebrity studies approaches as in the first phase, but will also add theoretical writers on assemblages and collectivities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Projekt

Projektleitung

Prof. Dr. Irina A. Dumitrescu

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie Abteilung für English Medieval Studies Regina-Pacis-Weg 5 53113 Bonn

+49-(0)228-737841

idumitre[at]uni-bonn.de

 

 

 

 

 

Projektmitarbeit

Dr. Rebecca Hardie (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin)

Sonderforschungsbereich 1167 "Macht und Herrschaft" Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Poppelsdorfer Allee 24 53115 Bonn

+49-(0)228-7354463

rhardie[at]uni-bonn.de

Assoziierte Projektmitarbeit

Dr. Emma O'Loughlin Bérat