As a playful end to our sneak peeks, and because listicles appear to be all the rage these days, here are 21 moments when the Roman de Fauvel strikingly depicted what student life can be like. 1. When the teacher asks for a volunteer but no one wants to:2. The look on your faces when you and your classmates pretend you love a certain theory because your tutor claims it is awesome:3. That feeling you get when it’s late in the semester and all your deadlines are catching up to you:4. That awkward moment when your friend catches you making selfies during class:5. When the teacher finds out you didn’t do the required readings for their seminar:6. When you obtain your driver’s license and your parents finally allow you to drive their car for the first time:7. When you’re going to order pizza, but none of your friends can agree on what they want:8. That moment when you realise it’s been too long since you last went out for drinks and now you can’t hold your liquor anymore:9. When the teacher is basically just reading their powerpoint out loud and you start to wonder why you pay so much tuition every year:10. When you’re trying to fall asleep, but then you suddenly get visited by a feeling of guilt for not finishing that one deadline yet:11. When the class doesn't know what to do, but no one wants to ask the teacher for information:12. When you finally find the time to go to a party and everyone goes crazy:13. … but then you and your friends get so drunk you need a taxi to get back home:14. That feeling when you sold your soul to write the perfect essay, but your teacher still thought it wasn’t all that great:15. When you try to catch up on course readings but your friends won’t stop asking you to go for drinks:16. When you’re wondering if maybe you should give up higher education and sell your body instead:17. Trying to balance sleep, academia, and a healthy social life:18. When, after the exam, you discuss your answers with your classmates and you start questioning everything you wrote:19. When you’re trying to convince your teacher that the death of your favourite fictional character warrants an extension of your deadline:20. When you’ve been locked inside for days trying to find a good angle for your research paper and suddenly you get blessed with inspiration:21. And finally (hopefully), when you present your early findings at a conference and get unexpected approval from all the scholars present:Sven GinsThis post marks the end of our regular sneak peeks. We hope that you have enjoyed them, and that they have persuaded you to attend our conference this Thursday. If you would like to come but haven't registered yet, you can still do so here. “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945) These are remarkable times indeed. If George Orwell could see some of the unfortunate events transpiring in the world today, he might facepalm before rolling over in his grave. Interestingly, there appears to be something persistently animalistic about politics.
However, this is not the first time that politics has become so ‘beastly’. I’d like to draw your attention to a remarkable manuscript from the early fourteenth century, the Roman de Fauvel (1316). The volume satirises the French king Philip IV ‘the Fair’, and it serves as an admonishment to king Philip V who inherited the Crown in 1317. In the first book of Fauvel, Lady Fortune decides to take the horse Fauvel (whose name is an acronym referring to the Vices Flattery, Avarice, Vileness, Variability, Envy, and Laxity) from his stable, and she places him in charge of the royal palace, similar to how the Roman emperor Caligula supposedly made his horse a minister. Unlike Caligula’s horse, Fauvel uses this power to upend the balance of the nation, heralding even the very Apocalypse. Yet the people who have the power to stop him (such as royalty, nobility, the clergy, etc.) want nothing more than to… pet him? For, as the story goes, “there was not a person who was not preparing to gently curry Fauvel" (N'i a nul qui ne s'appareille / De torchier Fauvel doucement).
Sven GinsWould you like Sven Gins to reveal more about his ongoing research into the curious manuscript that is the Roman de Fauvel? Please register here to secure your seat.
Although the text severely condemns the violence used by the Slavs in this rebellion, it also justifies their cause by laying the ultimate blame on the Duke and other nobles of neighbouring Saxony. By subjecting the population to excessive tribute and ‘grievous oppression’, they had provoked the Slavic peoples to ‘throw of the yoke of servitude, being forced to take up arms in defence of their freedom’. What this example makes clear is that, whereas the Slavic tribes in the frontier region of the German Empire were politically speaking a subjugated people, the Church in fact considered them as equals in God’s grace. Consequently, the task of bringing the pagan Slavs into the fold of Christianity was eminently more important than short-term gains of political oppression. The Church was therefore quick to denounce ‘the violence inherent in the system’ in case of excessive repression. Miente PietersmaAre you curious to hear more about Miente Pietersma's research on the ambivalent position of Slavic tribes in the German Empire during the High Middle Ages? Please register here to secure your seat. |
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