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LitPre17


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Frauds, Forgeries, and Newfound Works 
Convenor:
Christina Laffin (University of British Columbia)
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Discussant:
Melanie Trede (Heidelberg University)
Section:
Pre-modern Literature
Sessions:
Saturday 28 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels

Short Abstract:

This panel presents new discoveries and emerging research on the forgery of medieval and early modern texts and objects. What do falsification and authentication tell us about the production and reception of literary works, historical documents, and masterpieces of art?

Long Abstract:

What makes a work a forgery and how does its production harness notions of authenticity and expertise? What do past and present efforts to authenticate tell us about literary authority, economic interests, and the historical and art historical contexts in which veracity is determined? This panel brings together five scholars from Europe, Japan, North America to consider how forgery has been defined from the eighth century to the present and what this reveals about the production and reception of counterfeits and "authentic" works. Our panelists take us from early medieval poetry circles, through the late medieval "golden age" of counterfeit documents, and into late-eighteenth to early-nineteenth-century ukiyo-e. The first paper addresses textual and sociocultural evidence for reevaluating a poetic treatise often attributed to Fujiwara no Teika. A close examination of the commentary reveals an implied reader eager for poetic knowledge and the historical context of competing claims to authority which necessitated the production of fraudulent texts such as the Maigetsushō. The second presenter considers how forgery may be defined based on legal and cultural discourses seen in falsified texts asserting imperial patronage of artisan groups. What economic and institutional authority was offered by such documents even as their semi-fictive nature was accepted? The final paper presents the shocking rediscovery of an Utamaro painting in 2014 and the aftermath of scrutiny and debate over historical and visual evidence. How does the determination of authenticity of Fukagawa in the Snow and its two related works expose the murky distinctions between forgery and verified masterpiece? Our convener and discussant will bring perspectives from literary studies and art history to stimulate discussion.

Accepted papers:

Session 1 Saturday 28 August, 2021, -