Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Homoerotic Medievalism: Looking At Queer Desire In The Homosocial Relationships Of Chaucer’S “The Knight’S Tale” And Fletcher And Shakespeare’S The Two Noble Kinsmen, Juan P. Espinosa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to explore queer interiority within the heteronormative social constructions of late medieval England. Queer interiority is not an occurrence of modernity, but rather a response to social constructions that date back to the Middle Ages. It is essential to account for queerness in the Middle Ages because authors like Chaucer promote the successive resurfacing of queer characters within heteronormative social constructions. Writing during the queer reign of Richard II, Chaucer constructs the interior identities of Palamon and Arcite as a reflection of the king and the political norms of England. Inspired by Chaucer, authors …

Knights Of The Middle Ages, David Sikes

History Class Publications

As humans began to grow in numbers, they began to create civilizations for themselves in order to better survive, and as those civilizations grew, there came to be a divergence of roles for people to perform. The most universal of all these was the Warrior Elite, a class of people who were part of the lesser nobility and would function as officers and generals in times of conflict. For Japan it was the Samurai, for Iran it was the Persian Immortals, and for Europe in the 9^th to late 15^th century, there were the Knights. Let us look …

The Light Of The Middle Ages, David Duwal

Undergraduate Student Scholarship – History

This essay presents a description of three medieval candlesticks as well as an argument about their purposes other than for holding candles. It explores the symbolic and religious nature of medieval design, especially in regard to the natural and bestial. Accompanying is a digital exhibition of the three candlesticks that includes close-up images of the details discussed in the essay.

A Historiography Of Nationalism: And The Case For Scandinavia, Alexander L. Jacobson

Summer Research

This project surveys the historiography of nationalism and its theoretical shortcomings. It builds upon the work of emerging theorists and revisionists across a wide variety of disciplines and this project then contextualizes nationalism and its related theories in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. After establishing a firm history, the project ends with a quick survey of Medieval Scandinavian History and suggest that this region developed a proto-nationalism during the period. Moreover, this project looks to insert the developments of the Middle Ages into the scholarly discourse surrounding nationalism. In opposition to modernist theories of nationalism—who point to the …

L’Ètica De L’Estètica ¿Caldria Debatre L’Antijudaisme Del ‘Misteri D’Elx’?, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Al final de la representació de la segona jornada del Misteri d’Elx hi ha un moment d’indescriptible intensitat emocional. La catarsi que experimenten els espectadors, actors i músics sol manifestar-se en aclamacions, víctors i fins i tot llàgrimes. Els ventalls de les dones aletegen agilíssims, pràcticament posseïts. Primer tímidament —per a no interrompre la màgia del moment— però gradualment amb gran intensitat, comencen, ja al final de la representació, els aplaudiments, sempre in crescendo, acompanyats, poc després, per la coneguda i emfàtica expressió: «Visca la Mare de Déu!».

Modern Intolerance And The Medieval Crusades [Excerpted From Whose Middle Ages?], Nicholas L. Paul

History

Whose Middle Ages? is an interdisciplinary collection of short, accessible essays intended for the non-specialist reader and ideal for teaching at an undergraduate level. Each of twenty-two essays takes up an area where humans have dug for meaning into the medieval past and brought something distorted back into the present: in our popular entertainment; in our news, our politics, and our propaganda; and in subtler ways that inform how we think about our histories, our countries, and ourselves. Each author teases out the stakes of a history that has refused to remain past and uses the tools of the academy …

How The Catholic Church Came To Oppose Birth Control, Lisa Mcclain

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark “Humanae Vitae,” Pope Paul VI’s strict prohibition against artificial contraception, issued in the aftermath of the development of the birth control pill. At the time, the decision shocked many Catholic priests and laypeople. Conservative Catholics, however, praised the pope for what they saw as a confirmation of traditional teachings.

Nowhere In The Middle Ages. Karma Lochrie. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. 270 Pp. $65., Christopher Kendrick

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A review of Karma Lochrie's book, Nowhere in the Middle Ages.

The Beautiful Lucifer As An Object Of Aesthetic Contemplation In The Central Middle Ages, Gerald B. Guest

2017 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Grammars And Rhetorics, Ian Cornelius

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Grammar and rhetoric were the disciplines charged with teaching correct and effective use of language in antiquity. In the Middle Ages, these disciplines served to maintain Latin as a language of culture, religion, and administration over much of Europe. Grammatical studies flourished in medieval England following the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Subsequent developments in grammatical and rhetorical studies in Britain in the Middle Ages track deep changes in the social conditioning of literacy and social demands upon literacy. Among the medieval English innovations in these disciplines were the teaching of Latin as a foreign language, the cultural accommodation …

Book Review Of Merchant Writers: Florentine Memoirs From The Middle Ages And Renaissance, Brian Jeffrey Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of Merchant Writers: Florentine Memoirs from the Middle Ages and Renaissance by Vittore Branca

Bridget Of Sweden (1303-1373) As Author, Mark E. Peterson

Libraries

No abstract provided.

The Invention Of The Native Speaker, Thomas Paul Bonfiglio

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

This paper argues that employing the designations “native speaker” and “native language” unreflectively is to engage in a gesture of othering that operates on an axis of empowerment and disempowerment. Bonfiglio examines the ideological legacy of the apparently innocent kinship metaphors of “mother tongue” and “native speaker” by historicizing their linguistic development. He traces the construction of ethnolinguistic nationalism, a composite of national language, identity, geography, and race, which informed the philology of the early modern era and culminated most divisively in the race-conscious discourses of the 19th century. Bonfiglio makes the case that scholarship should scrutinize the tendency to …

The Medieval Dark Horse: Challenge And Reward In The Middle English Lyric, Andrew S. Marvin

English Faculty Publications

“The Medieval Dark Horse: Challenge and Reward in the Middle English Lyric” explores the genre’s history and literary merits while addressing the question of why this valuable and extensive body of literature has largely gone untapped by scholars.

The introductory sections detail the historical and modern contexts of the lyric, including the state of scholarship, manuscripts, editions, dating issues, purpose, audience, types of lyrics, and themes. This background informs a discussion of the genre’s difficulties and offers solutions with which to counter them. Close readings of eight poems are included to exemplify the lyric’s thematic range, stylistic diversity, and literary …

(Review) Alter, Krankheit, Tod Und Herrschaft Im Frühen Mittelalter: Das Beispiel Der Karolinger, Frederick S. Paxton

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Local Histories, John G. H. Hudson

Book Chapters

This chapter looks at how local historical writing is prominent in medieval historiography, just as local affairs dominated most lives in the Middle Ages. However, the term and category local history is a modern concept, not a medieval one. Furthermore, even as a modern analytic category, local history can be problematic. One might ask whether the category should include powerful counties but not small kingdoms, or national histories with local sections or brief local elements. In England, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle was primarily concerned with national affairs, but also mentioned events in the particular monasteries where the various versions were …

Review Of Elisabeth Vavra, Ed. Der Wald Im Mittelalter, Richard Utz

Medieval Institute Affiliated Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Richard Newhauser (Ed.), The Seven Deadly Sins: From Communities To Individuals (Book Review), Denise A. Kaiser

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Denise Kaiser:

ISBN 9789004157859

(Review) Mémoires Carolingiennes: L’Épitaphe Entre Célébration Mémorielle, Genre Littéraire Et Manifeste Politique, Frederick S. Paxton

History Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "Mémoires carolingiennes: L'épitaphe entre célébration mémorielle, genre littéraire et manifeste politique (milieu VIIIe-début XIe siècle," by Cécile Treffort.

(Review) Struggle For Empire: Kingship And Conflict Under Louis The German, 817-76, Frederick S. Paxton

History Faculty Publications

Reviews Eric J. Goldberg's, Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817–876. (Conjunctions of Religion and Power in the Medieval Past.) Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, 2006. Pp. xxiii, 385; black-and-white figures, genealogical tables, and maps. $47.50.

Shifting Experiences: The Changing Roles Of Women In The Italian, Lowland, And German Regions Of Western Europe From The Middle Ages To The Early Modern Period, Susan Papino

Senior Honors Projects

As the culture of the Middle Ages declined and Early Modern period characterized by a revival of humanistic ideals of the Renaissance commenced, the society of Western Europe underwent many changes. Different attitudes emerged concerning cultural values, and the medieval feudal way of life that has often been interpreted as being antiquated and obsolete gave way to more modern political, economic, and social systems. The question still remains, however, of exactly how women, an often underrepresented part of society, were affected by these so-called modernizing changes. The scope of this research is to basically address this question and examine the …

Flarr Pages #50: A Bridge From The Middle Ages To Modernity, Benjamin Smith

FLARR Pages

No abstract provided.

Evidence Of Sanctity: Record-Keeping And Canonization At The Turn Of The 13th Century, Michelle Light

Library Faculty Publications

In 1234, the papacy asserted an exclusive right to canonize saints. To gain control over the canonization process, popes required increasingly specific written evidence from communities about their saints and developed investigative procedures to authenticate the communities’ miraculous evidence. Gathering written testimony for review in Rome was an act of domination over local processes for sanctifying community members. Not only did papal record-keeping remove decision-making from local hands, but it also enabled review of correct belief, structured community responses to the sacred, and provided an effective display of papal rights. During the process of St. Gilbert of Sempringham in 1201–1203, …

(Review) The Myth Of Nations: The Medieval Origins Of Europe, Frederick S. Paxton

History Faculty Publications

Reviews Patrick J. Geary's, The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. First paperback ed. Princeton N.J., and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003. Pp. xi, 199. $16.95.

New Voices In The Tradition: Medieval Hagiography Revisited, Marie Anne Mayeski

Theological Studies Faculty Works

The author argues for the use of hagiographical texts to expand the evidence for the theological tradition, precisely during the early Middle Ages when more obvious sources are wanting. Her thesis is that there is sound basis for reading the lives of the saints through the lens of doctrinal theology. After giving this evidence, she then exemplifies the value of such a reading by an ecclesiological analysis of Rudolf of Saxony’s life of St. Leoba, a companion of St. Boniface.]

"I Am The Creator": Birgitta Of Sweden's Feminine Divine, Yvonne Bruce

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Conference Queers The Middle Ages, Francesca Sautman

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

On November 5-7, the groundbreaking "Queer Middle Ages" conference took place at the CUNY Graduate Center and at NYU, and drew an attendance of over 150 people. Plenary speakers included Judith Bennett (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Michael Camille (University of Chicago), Carolyn Dinshaw (University of California, Berkeley), and Everett K. Rowson (University of Pennsylvania).

Book Review. Roman Law After The Fall Of Rome, David V. Snyder

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Review of: Stein, Peter, Roman Law in European History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

The Guitar In The Middle Ages And Renaissance, Julie D. Carmen

Library Scholarship

In the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) world there are high standards for recovering and reconstructing the truth in history. Recorded history determines how we re-create the Middle Ages, and it is with much determination that we search for as many facts as possible for each of our varied interests. This article seeks to clarify the historical authenticity of one of the most popular musical instruments, the guitar.

Philanthropy As A Virtue In Late Antiquity And The Middle Ages, G. Scott Davis

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

"Philanthropy," "charity," and related concepts were well known to late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Rulers, wealthy individuals and, early on, the Christian church founded hospitals, distributed food, and established forms of relief for the needy of various sorts throughout the period. The problem comes in interpreting these activities, their motives, and their goals. Is the philanthropia of a pre-Christian philosopher of a piece with the agape, or Christian love, of a fourth-century bishop? When the Roman emperor provides bread and circuses, what does he intend and why does he do it? Does the twelfth-century nobleman intend the same? As …