This book explores the ways in which discourses of religious, racial, and national identity blur and engage each other in the medieval West. Specifically, the book studies depictions of Muslims in England during the 1330s and argues that these depictions, although historically inaccurate, served to enhance and advance assertions of English national identity at this time. The book examines Saracen characters in a manuscript renowned for the variety of its texts, and discusses hagiographic legends, elaborations of chronicle entries, and popular romances about Charlemagne, Arthur, and various English knights. In these texts, Saracens engage issues such as the demarcation of communal borders, the place of gender norms and religion in communities' self-definitions, and the roles of violence and history in assertions of group identity. Texts involving Saracens thus serve both to assert an English identity, and to explore the challenges involved in making such an assertion in the early fourteenth century when the English language was regaining its cultural prestige, when the English people were increasingly at odds with their French cousins, and when English, Welsh, and Scottish sovereignty were pressing matters.
Author(s): Siobhain Bly Calkin
Series: Studies in Medieval History and Culture, 31
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 312
City: New York & London
Series Editor's Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
MUSLIMS, SARACENS AND MEDIEVALISTS
THE AUCHINLECK MANUSCRIPT
IMAGINING ENGLISHNESS IN THE EARLY FOURTEENTH CENTURY
SARACENS AND THE MAKING OF ENGLISH IDENTITY
Chapter One. The Perils of Proximity: Saracen Knights, Sameness, and Differentiation
INTRODUCTION
ENGLISH AND FRENCH POLITICAL PROXIMITY
ENGLISH AND FRENCH CULTURAL PROXIMITY
SAMENESS AND SARACENS
SAMENESS AND INTERPELLATIONS OF ALTERNATE IDENTITIES
WILLED DIFFERENTIATION
WILLED IDENTITIES AND THE AUCHINLECK MANUSCRIPT
THE LIMITATIONS OF WILL: ALLEGIANCES, HIERARCHIES, AND WILLING AWRY
FRATERNIZING WITH THE ENEMY
DA CAPO AL FINE
Chapter Two. Saracens and She-Wolves: Foreign Consorts and Group Identity
INTRODUCTION
THE SARACEN PRINCESS AND THE FOREIGN QUEEN
PERFORMING IDENTITY
PERMANENCE AND PASSING
AFFIRMATION
CODA: GOOD QUEEN/BAD QUEEN
Chapter Three. Monstrous Intermingling and Miraculous Conversion: Negotiating Cultural Borders in 'The King of Tars'
INTRODUCTION
INTEGRATING FOREIGNERS AND APPEALING TO 'INGLISCH' IDENTITY
THE LITERARY HISTORY OF PE KING OF TARS
DEFINING, CONSTRUCTING, AND PROBLEMATIZING CULTURAL BORDERS IN PEKING OF TARS
MONSTROUS INTERMINGLING
CODA: AN ALTERNATE AUCHINLECK VISION OF CULTURAL INTEGRATION
Chapter Four. Saracens and English Christian Identity in 'Seynt Katerine' and 'Seynt Mergrete'
INTRODUCTION
CONTEXTUALIZING SEYNT KATERINE, SEYNT MERGRETE, AND THE SARACENS THEREIN
SARACEN PERSECUTORS, THE AUCHINLECK CONTEXT, AND CHRISTIAN ENGLISH IDENTITY
SARACEN PERSECUTORS AND THE ELUCIDATION OF MODEL CHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR
SARACENS AND MUSLIMS
REJECTION AND IMAGINATIVE REDRESS
CODA: CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEED FOR PERSECUTION ON DEMAND
Chapter Five Saracens, Englishness, and Productive Violence in 'Of Arthour and Of Merlin'
INTRODUCTION
THE TEXTUAL ORIGINS OF OFARTHOURAND OF MERLIN AND ITS SARACENS
ARTHURIAN SARACENS AND THE REPRESENTATION OF ENGLISH IDENTITY
SARACENS AND ENGLAND'S CRUSADING HERITAGE
SARACENS, HISTORY, AND THE HYBRID NATURE OF ENGLISH IDENTITY
THE BLESSINGS OF THE BAD PENNY: SARACENS, PRODUCTIVE VIOLENCE, AND ENGLISH POLITICAL IDENTITY
CODA: VERNACULARITY, VIOLENCE, AND THE PROLOGUE
Conclusion
Notes
Appendix
ITEMS CONTAINED IN THE AUCHINLECK MANUSCRIPT
Bibliography
MEDIEVAL TEXTS
SECONDARY TEXTS
Subject Index
