Wendy Laura Belcher presents the "Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project," a resource for stories about and images of the Virgin Mary in these African countries.
About the project:
"Ladder of Heaven: The Miracles of the Virgin Mary in Medieval African Literature and Art"
The Virgin Mary is the world’s most storied person. For two millennia, countless stories have been told about the miracles the Mother of Jesus Christ has performed for the faithful who call upon her name. Africans were among the first to compose stories about her and over the centuries folk tellers from Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia have written 1,000 short, meaningful narratives about her and healing, reparative justice, and personal ethics in a violent world. Africans have also painted her for centuries. Together, these stories constitute a body of literature that many people believe doesn’t exist—written African literature from before the arrival of Europeans. Come learn about these stories and paintings, which are the subject of the Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) digital humanities project at pemm.princeton.edu.
Some of these stories depict good people in desperate need—those in search of healing from disabilities, rescue from criminals and abusers, safe passage on difficult journeys, protection from punishment, relief from desire, and delivery from savage animals. Many stories are full of slippery characters up to no good and wide-eyed innocents ensnared in their shenanigans, all of whom stumble through startling plot turns to arrive in the arms of the all-forgiving mother. These Marian miracle stories are preserved in the ancient African language of Gəˁəz (classical Ethiopic) in a compilation text called the Täˀammərä Maryam (the Miracle of Mary). This text is preserved up until today on handmade parchment manuscripts in Egyptian and Ethiopian Christian monasteries. As such, these Marian miracle stories represent a rich repository of African thought and innovation.
About the presenter:
Wendy Laura Belcher is professor of African literature in Princeton University’s departments of Comparative Literature and African American Studies, where she is a specialist in early written African literature, particularly that in African languages. Her research focuses on how African literatures have participated in a global traffic in invention, pairing texts across national and continental boundaries in order to debunk stereotypes of Africans as peoples without history, texts, or influence until the 1950s. Her books in progress are Ladder of Heaven: The Miracles of the Virgin Mary in Medieval African Literature and Art (supported by her NEH-funded digital humanities project PEMM) and The Black Queen of Sheba: A Global History of an African Idea.
Presented in partnership with Princeton University's Department of Comparative Literature, Center for Digital Humanities, Africa World Initiative and Program in African Studies and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | World Language | Lectures & Panels | Humanities | *No Registration |
TAGS: | NEH |
