Symposium "Fiat pax – Desiring Peace in Medieval Literatures"

This symposium is part of the “moral revolutions” issue and takes place within the “historical approach” research perspective. The participants will pay particular attention to the ethical anchoring of the theme of peace in these two LETHICA problematics.

Medieval narrative texts, marked by a culture of honor and the sublimation of heroism, indeed provide fertile ground for reflection on the ethical issues of peace. Can we identify cases where primacy was given to peace over war? More generally, if both war and peace are presented as effective solutions for conflict management, how do poets articulate, in specific cases, the deliberation and negotiation between these two poles and how do they stage the processes by which peace may take precedence over war?

Keynote speakers

Brigitte Burrichter, professeure (Université de Würzburg) : « Friedensaspekte in der Historia Regum Britanniae und im Roman de Brut »
Patrick del Duca, professeur (Université de Clermont-Auvergne) : « Paix et ruptures de paix dans le Willehalm de Wolfram von Eschenbach »
Ármann Jakobsson, professeur (Université de Reykjavik) : « Suing for Peace: The historiographer Sturla Þórðarson and his contemporary sagas as ideological documents »