This panel will convene at the Thirteenth Biennial Conference of the Australia and
New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (#anza21), to be
held at The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, from 8-12 February
2021. https://www.anzamems2021.com/

The idea of the ‘king’s two bodies’, a duality predicated on the idea that a
monarch possessed two bodies, a body natural and a body politic–the former
mortal, the latter an embodiment of both the nation and the authority of
sovereignty–has long been of interest to scholars of medieval and early modern
monarchies.

The body of a monarch remains a contest site, with the life, health, fertility, and
sexuality of kings or queens continuing to be an important part of politics. Royal
scandal graces the covers of newspapers and magazines and trends on social
media, and royal weddings, births, and deaths continue to capture the public’s
imagination and interest.

We seek papers that examine the significance of the royal body, in particular, the
reception of the royal body across time periods, cultures, and media and how
royal bodies both convey and elicit emotions:

Topics may include, but are not limited to:
• Historiography
• Iconography and representation
• Drama and literature
• Political theory
• Divine bodies
• Rituals and ceremony
• Effigies and monuments
• Age, health and pregnancy
• Fertility, chastity, virility
• Royal births and deaths
• Christenings, coronations, weddings and funerals
• Regicide
• Royal touch
• Deformity and disability
• Royal Dress
• Sex and Scandal
• Gender
• Sexuality
• Race
• Medievalism and early-modernism
• Performance
• Audiences
• Popular culture
• Film and television
• Comics and graphic novels
• Fandom
• Celebrity

Proposals for 20-minute conference papers should consist of:
1. A title
2. An abstract (max. 200 words)
3. A short biography (max. 50 words)

Submissions should be emailed (as a Word document attachment) to:
mgerzic@gmail.com by 30 June 2020.