Published 2001 by Routledge. First issued in paperback 2018.
Using a combination of formalist and psychology-based approaches, this work examines the triple knowledge of subjectivity, body, and language in medieval imaginative literature.
In literature of the Middle Ages, subjectivity is inextricably bound up with language, and both are rooted firmly in the human body. Not only were the Middle Ages keenly aware of the materiality or embodiment of language — the rhythm of script on the eye, taste of words in the mouth — but they also knew that selfhood depended on language and speaking. The deployment of words and language as an indicator of developing self-awareness is a recurrent theme in medieval literature. Augustine's 'Confessions', for example, not only figures speaking in its title but also ends with an act of literary interpretation, an explication of the first chapter of Genesis. For Augustine, as for his successors, the unfolding of selfhood was inextricable from discourse and discursive performances.
Author(s): Corey J. Marvin
Series: Studies in Medieval History and Culture, 4
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 152
City: London
Preface xi
Introduction xvii
Chapter 1. Entry into Language: Medieval Literature and the Poetics of Julia Kristeva 1
Chapter 2. Castration: Chaucer's 'Prioress's Tale' and John of Garland's 'Stella Maris' 23
Chapter 3. Mourning: 'Semiramis' of MS Paris B.N. lat 8121A and Robert Henryson's 'Orpheus and Eurydice' 49
Chapter 4. Ecstasy: the Wakefield Shepherd plays and 'Offering of the Magi' 75
Epilogue
Concluding Remarks 107
Bibliography 111
Index 121
