In medieval allegory, Body and Soul were often pitted against one another in debate. In 'Body Against Soul: Gender and 'Sowlehele' in Middle English Allegory', Masha Raskolnikov argues that such debates function as a mode of thinking about psychology, gender, and power in the Middle Ages. Neither theological nor medical in nature, works of sowlehele ('soul-heal') described the self to itself in everyday language—moderns might call this kind of writing 'self-help'. Bringing together contemporary feminist and queer theory along with medieval psychological thought, 'Body Against Soul' examines 'Piers Plowman', the Katherine Group', and the history of psychological allegory and debate. In so doing, it rewrites the history of the Body to include its recently neglectedfellow, the Soul.
Author(s): Masha Raskolnikov
Series: Interventions: New Studies in Medieval Culture
Publisher: The Ohio State University Press
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 240
City: Columbus
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Thought Enfleshed: Philosophy and Psychology as Figured in Latin Allegory 31
2. Allegorizing the Split Self: A Middle English Debate Between the Body and the Soul 70
3. “The Soul Is the Prison of the Body”: Pedagogy, Punishment, and Self-Love in a Middle English Debate 105
4. Defending the Female Self: 'Sawles Warde' and 'Sowlehele' 139
5. Promising the Female, Delivering the Male: Transformations of Gender in 'Piers Plowman' 168
Conclusion 197
Appendix. In a Thestri Stude I Stod (I Stood in a Dark Place), Translation by Masha Raskolnikov 203
Bibliography 207
Index 219
