Othering a Guest Shan Morgain.
(The Self and the Other: Swansea, 10 October 2014)
Actually managed to get the pics to work this time. All went well except for having to climb THREE flights of stairs because no one fixed the lift.
Matt Wall chaired my panel and sent me feedback. I won’t give all the detail but here are the main points:
You presented with considerable authority and passion for your subject, you used humour and had a style that was informative, while inviting and informal.
The visuals/slides that you used were informative and nicely designed, while there was a little trouble with the software at the beginning of the talk, you overcame this well. [groan]
Matt thought I should have made my concept of othering more specific. The 20 mins time limit is a tyranny! but the criticism is an important one. Perhaps a quick image display next time.
Even more interesting Matt questioned me on whether the othering of Guest was by academic or popular response? I did not know how to answer at first which shows how good the question was. I returned to it later, and explained that the attitudes I had seen were in the Introduction sections of the Mabinogi books, including popular translations. So although the othering is at its core, academic, there are readers ‘in the wild’ who do read introductions and ould be influenced by them. Also key points like Guest being an English upper class lady are on many websites where the Mabinogi is briefly introduced.
Thanks Matt for a generous review and thoughtful critique.