Subtheme:
Forgiveness, Pardon, Indulgence

In addition to marking a time of celebration, in both its original ancient context and in its medieval reimaginings, jubilee served as a designated time for the forgiveness of debts (whether spiritual or material), pardon of past wrongs, and release from obligations related to labor and property. This thread invites session proposals that consider the place of forgiveness, pardon, and indulgence in rituals of celebration in the global medieval world. Questions to consider might include: How does the jubilant ethos of excess, grace, and indulgence (in every sense of the word) that is associated with rituals of celebration respond to an environment characterized by debt, need, and demand for atonement? What emancipatory or redemptive potentials are present in the practices of jubilee, carnival, and other joyously disruptive practices? On the other hand, what forms of deprivation might these rituals conceal and perpetuate, and what forms of hierarchy might they reaffirm? As a ritual of return, reset, and redemption, what relationship does jubilee have to ideas such as progress and justice? How do joy and forgiveness work in the service of these values, material or spiritual, and in what ways are the affects and observances associated with jubilee in tension with or even opposed to them? We also welcome proposals that describe or imagine what forms of forgiveness and satisfaction shape the ways that we as medievalists conduct or might conduct our research and teaching.