Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/03/2025
5:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
Black Box - Maison des Sciences Humaines
Categories
We are pleased to announce that the first “Let’s Talk About History” lecture of this semester will take place on Tuesday, March 4th, 2025, from 17:30 to 19:00 (registration opens at 17:15) at the Black Box, Maison des Sciences Humaines.
We will have the pleasure of welcoming Prof. Carolyne Larrington from Oxford University, an expert in medieval history, Old Norse mythology and folklore. She will present a lecture on the theme “Óðinn, Þórr, Loki and His Children: Old Norse Myth in Anglophone Popular Culture,” exploring how key figures from Old Norse mythology—Óðinn, Þórr, and Loki—have been reinterpreted in contemporary novels, films, TV series, and operas. The lecture will examine the ongoing debate on the ‘authenticity’ of these portrayals and how they engage with modern discussions on masculinity, queerness, adolescence, and alterity.
Lecture Abstract
This lecture will examine the ways in which three principal figures of Old Norse myth have been made to signify in recent Anglo-American culture. Exploring the figures of Óðinn, Þórr and Loki (and his monstrous children) in novels, films, TV shows and operas, I will argue that these figures are indeed, as journalists like to say, ‘having a moment’ in the present-day popular imagination, in ways that differ considerably from their roles in previous nineteenth- and early twentieth-century works. The cultural functions they fulfil are closely related to their depictions in medieval sources – indeed, their ‘authenticity’ in relation to medieval source material for example is a subject of lively debate in fan communities – but these characters have also fundamentally re-tooled and re-imagined in order to reflect on key contemporary concepts such as patriarchy, masculinity, queerness, adolescence and alterity in popular discourse.
When? Tuesday, March 4th, from 17:30 to 19:00 (registration begins at 17:15)
Where? Black Box, Maison des Sciences Humaines
As usual, the lecture will be followed by a convivial drink.
Registration Link: https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/billets-oinn-orr-loki-and-his-children-old-norse-myth-in-popular-culture-1237043864499?aff=oddtdtcreator
We look forward to seeing many of you there !
