Medieval Studies Commons^™

Green Worlds And Ecosemiotics, Paul Siewers

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

"Overlay landscapes" in Early Insular literatures, and how they connect early medieval cosmology with current-day ecosemiotics..

Dearabizing Arabia: Tracing Western Scholarship On The History Of The Arabs And Arabic Language And Script, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

This book is a reference book on the history of the Arabic Language and script, which goes beyond the sole discussion of technical matters. It studies objectively the evidence presented by modern-day western archeological discoveries together with the evidence presented by the indispensable scholarly work and research of past Islamic Arab civilization era. The book scrutinizes modern western theories regarding the history of the Arabs and Arabic language and script in connection with the roles played by Western Near East scholarship, religion and colonial history in the formation of current belief system, which is an essential step to study this …

Ars Musice, Johannes De Grocheio, Constant J. Mews, John N. Crossley, Catherine Jeffreys, Leigh Mckinnon, Carol J. Williams

TEAMS Varia

Ars musice, composed in Paris during the late thirteenth century, reflects Johannes de Grocheio's awareness of the complexity of the task of describing music. As the editors note in their introduction, "Grocheio is aware of the enormous range of types of music performed in different ways in different places. How can he impose order on this enormous subject matter? He decided to resolve this question by structuring his discussion around the practice of music that he observed in the city of Paris, organized into three main 'branches': music of the people (musica vulgalis), composite or regular, 'which they call measured …

Singing The Story: Narrative Voice And The Old English Scop, Lisa M. Horton

The Hilltop Review

The picture of Anglo-Saxon society that we receive through its literature is a direct result of the life of the Old English scop. His personality and experiences filter into the stories that he tells and provide nuanced interpretations of both histories and legends, while his position within Anglo-Saxon society allows him direct access to the great events and persons of his time. As an active participant in his society, at the feet or even at the right hand of a king, he wields profound influence; as an observer and commentator on his society, he records and interprets both reality and …

Terror In The Old French Crusade Cycle: From Splendid Cavalry To Cannibalism, Sarah-Grace Heller

Re-visioning Terrorism

It is worth examining memories of the crusading experience in discussions of terrorism in history as well as the current political situation. The main piece of propaganda that linked Osama Bin-Laden to the 9/11 attacks, the “World Islamic Front Statement urging Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders,” evoked a Muslim memory of the crusades largely forgotten in the West. The works of the Old French Crusade Cycle are unique texts remembering and fantasizing the encounter with Muslims and other “others” in the Mediterranean. Composed by Graindor de Douai between 1190 and 1212, they recounted the First Crusade (1095-1099) in the …

Ecopoetics And The Origins Of English Literature, Paul Siewers

Faculty Contributions to Books

An ecocritical survey of early English literature, focusing on the "green world" trope.

The Ecosemiosphere: Story And Region In Insular Medieval Literatures, Paul Siewers

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

Reflections on the interrelation of environmental humanities studies, physics and semiotics, as part of an international panel introducing ecosemiotics and biosemiotics to the North American ecocriticism communtiy at large.

The Glossa Ordinaria On Romans, Michael Scott Woodward

TEAMS Commentary Series

"The Gloss on Romans is a collection of sources from many periods and places, which accounts for its inconsistencies. And this is what gives the Gloss much of its charm. . . . The twelfth century was an age of gathering sources and commentaries, in theology (Lombard's Sentences), canon law (Gratian's Decretum), and biblical studies (the Glossa ordinaria). Education began to flourish into what would become universities, where the master's role was to elucidate traditional, authoritative texts. And chief among these was the Bible, not standing alone but with the accompanying Gloss." - from the introduction

Cistercian And Monastic Studies Conference, 2011, The Center For Cistercian And Monastic Studies Conference

Conference on Cistercian Studies Programs

Program for the 2011 Cistercian Studies Conference at Western Michigan University in conjunction with the 46th International Medieval Studies Congress. This conference happened between May 12-15 2011.

Woman Or Warrior? How Believable Femininity Shapes Warrior Women, Jessica D. Mccall

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My dissertation is an exploration of how femininity is constructed in the characters of warrior women. I define and apply my theory of believable femininity: the notion that in order for characters gendered female to be accepted by an audience, specific textual markers must render them submissive to a dominating male figure. I examine the following warrior women at length: Britomart and Radigund from Spenser's The Faerie Queene; Christine de Pizan's treatment of Amazons in her Book of the City of Ladies and Hippolyta's specific portrayal by de Pizan in comparison to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and the …

46th International Congress On Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University

International Congress on Medieval Studies Archive

The printed program of the 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 12-15, 2011), including the Corrigenda.

Chaucer’S Reading List: Sir Thopas, Auchinleck, And Middle English Romances In Translation, Ken Eckert

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Middle English romance has never attained critical respectability, dismissed as ―"vayn carpynge" in its own age and treated as a junk-food form of medieval literature or kidnapped for political or psychoanalytical readings. Chaucer‘s Tale of Sir Thopas has been explained as an acidly sarcastic satire of the romances‘ supposedly clichéd formulas and poetically unskilled authors. Yet such assumptions require investigation of how Chaucer and his ostensible audience might have viewed romance as a genre. Chaucer‘s likely use of the Auchinleck manuscript forms a convenient basis for examination of the romances listed in Thopas. With the aid of a modern translation, …

Dante’S Understanding Of The Two Ends Of Human Desire And The Relationship Between Philosophy And Theology, Jason Aleksander

Faculty Publications

I discuss Dante’s understanding that human existence is “ordered by two final goals” and how this understanding defines philosophy’s and theology’s respective scopes of authority in guiding human conduct. I show that, while Dante devalues the philosophical authority associated with the traditional Aristotelian emphasis on the significance of contemplative activity, he does so in order to highlight philosophy’s ethico-political authority to guide human conduct toward its “earthly beatitude.” Moreover, I argue that, although Dante subordinates earthly beatitude to spiritual beatitude, he nonetheless maintains that philosophy’s authority to reveal a path to spiritual beatitude requires its fundamental independence from theology.

The Paratext To Chrétien De Troyes's Cligés: A Reappraisal Of The Question Of Authorship And Readership In The Prologue, Levilson C. Reis

Modern Languages & Cultures Faculty Scholarship

Starting with the premise that medieval manuscripts exhibit paratextual vestiges of their auctores, redactors, copyists, and readers, this article re-examines the question of authorship and readership in Chrétien de Troyes's prologue to Cligés (c. 1176-80) through the lens of paratextual references to the implied author's signature, allusions to possible titles of his previous works, marginal annotations of interpretative readings, and cases of significant manuscript variance. Firmly grounded in the manuscript, editorial, and critical tradition of Cligés, this reading re-evaluates the tripartite thematic structure of the prologue, hypothesizing the paratextual effect that the opening list of literary tides, …

Clergie , Clerkly Studium , And The Medieval Literary History Of Chréétien De Troyes's Romances, Levilson C. Reis

Modern Languages & Cultures Faculty Scholarship

This article traces the development of medieval literary history across the thirteenth century through manuscript readings of Chréétien de Troyes's romances. Redefining clergie as the clerkly pursuit of learning, the author argues that scribes played an important role in shaping Chréétien's romances and establishing their place in medieval literary history. Examining manuscript collections centred on Cligéés, the author delineates synchronic and diachronic shifts in the organization and presentation of Chréétien's manuscripts, evaluating the roles that different scribes and compilers played in the formation of a Chréétien corpus and the development of a romance genre.

Discovering Border Crossings In Pagan Epic Literature, Marian Russell Bland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that border crossings were important to the ancient Celts and Norse as evidenced by the vast quantity of occurrences in their literature,and have remained important themes in literature throughout the ages. Border crossings reflect man's fascination with concepts beyond his immediate existence and understanding. His reactions to such inexplicable phenomena have provided inspiration to writers for hundreds of years. The investigation uncovers examples of border crossings in the epic stories captured in the Ulster and Fenian Cycles, TheTáin, The Eddas, and The Mabinogion.

Border crossings remain important for modern literary scholars to consider …

A Fourteenth-Century Augustinian Approach To The Jews In Riccoldo Da Monte Croce’S Ad Nationes Orientales, Lydia M. Walker

Comparative Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

Lutheran Christian Hebraism In The Time Of Solomon Glassius (1593-1656), Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Lutheran Hebrew scholarship in the era of Orthodoxy has suffered the same kind of scholarly neglect as theology from this period. A few Hebraists such as Wilhelm Schickard or Wolfgang Ratke have been the subjects of monographs or collections of articles, while others receive mention in university histories or books related to Jewish-Christian relations in early modern Germany. Only within the past decade have scholars addressed this facet of Reformation-era Christian Hebraism. Johann Anselm Steiger examined the use that Johann Gerhard and Solomon Glassius made of post-biblical Jewish literature, while Kenneth G. Appold has stressed the pivotal role that Hebrew …

Mythology In The Middle Ages: Heroic Tales Of Monsters, Magic, And Might, Christopher R. Fee

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Myths of gods, legends of battles, and folktales of magic abound in the heroic narratives of the Middle Ages. Mythology in the Middle Ages: Heroic Tales of Monsters, Magic, and Might describes how Medieval heroes were developed from a variety of source materials: Early pagan gods become euhemerized through a Christian lens, and an older epic heroic sensibility was exchanged for a Christian typological and figural representation of saints. Most startlingly, the faces of Christian martyrs were refracted through a heroic lens in the battles between Christian standard-bearers and their opponents, who were at times explicitly described in demonic terms. …

The Prince And The Prostitute: Competing Sovereignties In 14th Century Milan, Martina Saltamacchia

Medieval/Renaissance Studies Faculty Publications

On the morning of November 27, 1401, a brief confrontation took place at a countryside road just outside Milan. A small but intent group of delegates from the Fabbrica del Duomo, the institution in charge of the building and maintenance of the Cathedral of Milan, met Prince Gian Galeazzo Visconti right outside his castle, as he was riding toward the city.1 The angry ambassadors complained to the prince about his latest interference in the governance of the Fabbrica: a letter ordering it to re-hire Jean Mignot, the French architect whom the Council of the Cathedral had fired a month before. …

A Penitent Prepares: Affect, Contrition, And Tears, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

This essay draws upon a poetic and devotional texts from late medieval Spain to show how public displays of emotion (weeping, in particular) during penitential processions could be learned and prepared for in advance.