Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Middle Ages

This project engages with the theme of cross-cultural encounters in the Middle Ages, focusing on how these encounters shaped social, political, and economic landscapes. By analyzing various medieval literary texts, the contributors will examine how concepts like "Otherness" and interconnectedness appear in the context of politics, trade, migration, and religion, among other cultural and philosophical frameworks. One of the main objectives of "Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Middle Ages" is to illustrate how these medieval interactions shaped modern views of identity and difference. More specifically, this virtual book, with a particular focus on the German and Italian-speaking regions, aims to question and critically assess Eurocentric approaches to studying "Otherness," understanding that there is not a single model of alterity and that "Otherness" is a phenomenon that changes over time and according to the cultural context. Therefore, through this project, the students will provide analytical entries or rewritings of Medieval texts, among other creative projects, to present their own understanding of Medieval cross-cultural interactions and the complex and historically evolving nature of certain concepts.