Medieval Studies Commons^™

Displays Of Power In English Tudor Painting (1485-1603), Laura Meisner

Student Scholar Showcase

English painting between 1485 and 1603 shaped and was shaped by a myriad of cultural influences. Art historians generally agree that because England did not produce much of its own art until the 18^th century, it had a relatively slight impact on the development of Western art. A cursory history lesson of this time frame likely omits English art apart from the appearance of Hans Holbein the Younger as court painter under Henry VIII and Nicholas Hilliard during Elizabeth I’s reign. However, a study of English paintings throughout the entire Tudor period reflects its importance not only to England’s …

Tolkien, Eucatastrophe, And The Re-Creation Of Medieval Legend, Jane Beal Phd

Journal of Tolkien Research

Using comparative literary analysis, this essay examines three case studies from J.R.R. Tolkien’s oeuvre, in which Tolkien practiced eucatastrophic rewriting: his folk-tale, “Sellic Spell,” in which he re-creates the Old English poem Beowulf; his poem, “Princess Mee,” in which he re-envisions aspects of the myth of Narcissus and the Middle English dream vision poem, Pearl; and the character of Éowyn from The Lord of the Rings, in which he re-imagines the fate of Brynhild, a shield-maiden and valkyrie from Norse legend. In each case, Tolkien rewrites the original so that sorrow is transformed into happiness in Tolkien’s …

Playthings In Early Modernity: Party Games, Word Games, Mind Games, Allison Levy

Ludic Cultures, 1100-1700

Why do we play games—with and upon each other as well as ourselves? When are winners also losers, and vice-versa? How and to what end do we stretch the spaces of play? What happens when players go "out of bounds," or when games go "too far"? Moreover, what happens when we push the parameters of inquiry: when we play with traditional narratives of ludic culture, when we rewrite the rules?

An innovative volume of fifteen interdisciplinary essays at the nexus of material culture, performance studies, and game theory, Playthings in Early Modernity emphasizes the rules of the game(s) as well …

Intelligent Bodies And Embodied Minds: Reading Religious Performance In Middle English Writing From Syon Abbey, Nicholas Love, William Langland, And John Gower, Paul Holchak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues for a new reading of the relationship that texts have to performance, bodies have to agency, and that social construction has to literary criticism as these matters relate to the study of religious practice in late medieval England. The project first asks what it meant to participate in religious practice in two, early fifteenth-century Middle English prose texts, The Myroure of Oure Ladye and The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ. The former work is a gloss of the Divine Service performed by the Brigittine sisters at Syon Abbey, and the latter consists of …

El Spill De Jaume Roig. Estudio De Relaciones Semióticas Con La Picaresca, Raul Macias Cotano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Spill is a literary work written in the Catalan dialect of Valencia in 1460 by Jaume Roig, a prestigious doctor whose personal and public life is well known. The book presents numerous parallels with Lazarillo de Tormes, the 1554 novel written in Spanish (or “Castilian”) that has traditionally been considered the start of the picaresque genre in Spain. These similarities are so striking that it makes critics wonder if Spill may be a precedent of Lazarillo de Tormes. This dissertation studies the possible relations between those two books. The similarities are mostly thematic, for which the lens …

A Handbook Of Early Arabic Kufic Script: Reading, Writing, Calligraphy, Typography, Monograms, S. M. V. Mousavi Jazayeri, Perette E. Michelli, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

A comprehensive textbook of the early Arabic Kufic script, written as a complete reference book for calligraphers, designers, and students of art history and the history of Arabic language and scripts. This beautiful and powerful script was derived from the earlier Hijazi Mashq style of Mecca and Medina, which was invented by early Muslim scribes to record the Quran. Today, the many historical manuscripts displayed in numerous museums around the world can attest to development and evolution of this remarkable and versatile script. Authored by master calligrapher, Mousavi Jazayeri, this book is the first book written in English that is …

Hist 4654 Medieval London: Syllabus, 2017, Maryanne Kowaleski

Digital Pedagogy: Omeka Medieval London

Course syllabus for the 2017 offering of the course HIST 4654 Medieval London

Strangely Dark, Unbearably Bright: From The Volto Santo To The Veronica And Beyond In The Divine Comedy, Alexa Sand

Art and Design Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Tree: Symbol, Allegory, And Mnemonic Device In Medieval Art And Thought, Gerald B. Guest

2017 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Lost & Found: Order In The Court -- The Party Game, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens in our pluralist democracy.

The second game in the series, Lost & Found: Order in the Court …

Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber, Kelly Murdoch-Kitt

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens in our pluralist democracy.

The first game in the series is a strategy game called Lost & …

The Beryozovo Cup: A Byzantine Object At The Crossroads Of Twelfth-Century Eurasia, Alicia Walker

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Shifting Ethnic Identities In Spain And Gaul, 500-700: From Romans To Goths And Franks, Erica Buchberger

History Faculty Publications

Traditional scholarship on post-Roman western culture has tended to examine the ethnic identities of Goths, Franks, and similar groups while neglecting the Romans themselves, in part because modern scholars have viewed the concept of being Roman as one denoting primarily a cultural or legal affiliation. As this book demonstrates, however, early medieval 'Romanness' also encompassed a sense of belonging to an ethnic group, which allowed Romans in Iberia and Gaul to adopt Gothic or Frankish identities in a more nuanced manner than has been previously acknowledged in the literature.

'Strange' Lands Of Opportunity - Representations Of Moral, Social, And Economic Profit In Late Medieval And Early Modern Literature, Lisa Marie Kanniainen

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

‘STRANGE’ LANDS OF OPPORTUNITY – REPRESENTATIONS OF MORAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC PROFIT IN LATE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LITERATURE

By

LISA KANNIAINEN

MARCH 2017

Advisor: Dr. Jaime Goodrich

Major: English (British Literature)

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation pursues the link between late medieval and early modern texts and the thoughts of the developing middling class and the New Men. Adding to scholarship regarding travel literature, colonization, and propaganda, I claim that the selected texts offer insight into medieval and early modern concerns regarding moral, social, and economic profit. Employing contemporary economic constructs as a base, this enterprise investigates …

Masks Of The Dark Goddess In Arthurian Literature: Origin And Evolution Of Morgan Le Fay, John Christopher Shearer

Online Theses and Dissertations

The world of Arthurian legend is one steeped in mythology and magic, reflecting ancient Celtic traditions and tales that long preceded it. Such tales often feature perplexing and seemingly contradictory characters who drive complex plotlines and frequently challenge primary figures, greatly impacting how the overall story unfolds. A primary example of such a character is Morgan le Fay, who, by the time Sir Thomas Malory writes Le Morte d'Arthur in the fifteenth century, has assumed a range of roles from sister to King Arthur, Queen in her own right, wicked sorceress, and healer. Using both Post-Colonial and Feminist lenses, this …

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 …

The Reinvented Romance: A Study Of Manuscript Bnf French 60, Natalie Keller

Honors Theses

This thesis examines a fourteenth century manuscript of the Roman d'Enéas, currently held at the Bibliothèque nationale in France, for significant textual changes against the other surviving manuscripts. Careful study of the manuscript exposed considerable modifications to characterization and genre. Examination of the textual changes present in the manuscript, BnF 60, revealed an amplification of female figures and subtle developments of romance elements. In BnF 60 most changes occur in the exposition and the revised ending. The writer of this version appears to draw from copies of both the Roman d'Enéas and Virgil's Aeneid. It demonstrates the inconsistencies present in …

Enclosed From All Sides: Reading Contact And Ambivalence In The Imaginary Al-Andalus Of Hrotsvit's The Passion Of Pelagius And The Song Of Roland, Briana J. Wipf

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hrotsvit of Gandersheim’s The Passion of Pelagius and The Song of Roland have never been read together in terms of their shared engagement with the Muslim other in the Iberian Peninsula, known during the Middle Ages as Al-Andalus. This project is a comparative reading of the texts’ approach to the presentation of an imaginary Al-Andalus as a space of alterity. The texts’ emphasis on imaginative as opposed to accurate portrayals of Andalusian history and Islamic culture suggests their engagement with a process of Christian identity-building, where the “Christian,” as portrayed in each text, is defined against and in comparison to …

The Failure Of Counsel: Curial Corruption In Book Vi Of The Vox Clamantis, Robert J. Meindl

Accessus

The king's court is the final element in Gower's analysis of the law in Book VI of the Vox Clamantis prior to the speculum principis that is the book's climax. Having discussed the men of law, judges, sheriffs, jurors, and bailiffs in chapters one through six, the poet now finds fault in chapter seven with the various advisers who surround the king for the purpose of providing him useful counsel in governing the realm. They, too, are found wanting in an analysis of the current situation in England.

Foreword, Georgiana Donavin, Eve Salisbury

Accessus

This foreword by Georgiana Donavin and Eve Salisbury introduces Accessus volume 3, issue 2 to readers of the journal.