Beyond the boundaries of the known Christian world during the Middle Ages, there were alien cultures that intrigued, puzzled, and sometimes frightened the people of Europe. The reports of travelers in Africa and Asia revealed that "monstrous" races of men lived there, whose appearance and customs were quite different from the European norm. This book examines the impact of these races upon Western art, literature, and philosophy, from their earliest mention until the age of exploration. Friedman furnishes a descriptive catalog of the races, most of which were real, geographically remote peoples, some of which were fabled creatures that served as symbols. He traces the evolution of European attitudes toward them, with particular emphasis on the high Middle Ages, when they seem most strongly to have captured the Western imagination. Ranging through literature, the arts, cartography, canon law, and theology, he considers the widely varying ways in which Christians viewed and depicted strange races of men. Finally, he examines transformations in European consciousness brought about by the discoveries of the exotic peoples of the Americas. Whatever their form—pygmy, giant, hirsute cave—dweller, cyclops, or Amazon-the monstrous races clearly challenged the traditional concept of man in the Christian world scheme. It is the medieval thinking about this challenge that Mr. Friedman addresses in this revealing account.
Orpheus, the Thracian signer who charmed nature with the music of his lyre and traveled to the underworld to win back his wife, Ewydice, is a familiar figure in Western culture. Yet, as each age modified his deeds and altered the narrative to make the Orpheus myth conform to the values of the day, his legend acquired many new and surprising meanings. Friedman examines the various reshaping's of the myth from the Hellenistic age through the late Middle Ages. He presents primarily a literary study, but draws as well upon art and iconography, indicating how literary characterizations of Orpheus gave rise to new iconographical details for his portrayals in art, which in turn led to different portrayals in literature. He first outlines the figure of Orpheus in antiquity. He continues with an examination of the significant conceptual changes in the Orpheus myth. In the religious and philosophical writings of Hellenistic Jews and, later, Christians, Orpheus appears as a monotheist. He emerges as a Good Shepherd figure in late antique art and eventually is identified with Christ as a guide of men's souls to the afterlife. In the Middle Ages, Orpheus' relationship with Ewydice gains importance. The pair first serve a didactic and moralizing purpose, coming together as in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, more as the abstractions of reason and passion than as tragic lovers. In the later Middle Ages, however, they appear as a secular couple who illustrate the power of the god Amor over the human heart. Orpheus becomes a courtly knight and the writer of elegant love lyrics. The blending of these two medieval traditions is seen in Robert Henryson's Orpheus and Eurydice. Friedman pays special attention to this work as well as to the romance Sir Orfeo. Thus, the propagation of religious belief—one of the primary concerns of the early Middle Ages— was reflected in the early conceptions of Orpheus. Later, with the growth of the courtly love tradition Orpheus and Eurydice became significant as lovers. This book illustrates the vitality and flexibility that a myth must possess as it adapts to different eras and embodies the interests and concerns of each.
The friendship between Elizabeth Waugh and the influential literary critic and novelist Edmund Wilson developed in the early 1930s and lasted until Waugh's death in 1944. Despite the cultural differences between them - Waugh as a self-educated and emotional visual artist and Wilson an analytical and learned critic with a historical bent - they developed a bond that was close if often troubled." "The present volume contains eighty-eight letters from Waugh to Wilson, plus several from him to her and to her mother after her death. Their correspondence - now at Yale University - is presented here with meticulously detailed annotation of persons and events referred to in the letters, providing a provocative look into the private thoughts of these two representative figures from the artistic and literary worlds of the later 1930s. These letters, read against the portrayal of the fictional Imogen Loomis, offer fascinating insights into the process of artistic creation in the novel; taken with the biographical Introduction and Afterword, they can shed light on many of the problems faced by literary and artistic women of the upper middle class during the depression era."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Beyond the boundaries of the known Christian world during the Middle Ages, there were alien cultures that intrigued, puzzled, and sometimes frightened the people of Europe. The reports of travelers in Africa and Asia revealed that "monstrous" races of men lived there, whose appearance and customs were quite different from the European norm. This book examines the impact of these races upon Western art, literature, and philosophy, from their earliest mention until the age of exploration. Friedman furnishes a descriptive catalog of the races, most of which were real, geographically remote peoples, some of which were fabled creatures that served as symbols. He traces the evolution of European attitudes toward them, with particular emphasis on the high Middle Ages, when they seem most strongly to have captured the Western imagination. Ranging through literature, the arts, cartography, canon law, and theology, he considers the widely varying ways in which Christians viewed and depicted strange races of men. Finally, he examines transformations in European consciousness brought about by the discoveries of the exotic peoples of the Americas. Whatever their form—pygmy, giant, hirsute cave—dweller, cyclops, or Amazon-the monstrous races clearly challenged the traditional concept of man in the Christian world scheme. It is the medieval thinking about this challenge that Mr. Friedman addresses in this revealing account.
The friendship between Elizabeth Waugh and the influential literary critic and novelist Edmund Wilson developed in the early 1930s and lasted until Waugh's death in 1944. Despite the cultural differences between them - Waugh as a self-educated and emotional visual artist and Wilson an analytical and learned critic with a historical bent - they developed a bond that was close if often troubled." "The present volume contains eighty-eight letters from Waugh to Wilson, plus several from him to her and to her mother after her death. Their correspondence - now at Yale University - is presented here with meticulously detailed annotation of persons and events referred to in the letters, providing a provocative look into the private thoughts of these two representative figures from the artistic and literary worlds of the later 1930s. These letters, read against the portrayal of the fictional Imogen Loomis, offer fascinating insights into the process of artistic creation in the novel; taken with the biographical Introduction and Afterword, they can shed light on many of the problems faced by literary and artistic women of the upper middle class during the depression era."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Audelay's idiosyncratic devotional tastes, interesting personal life history, and declared political affiliations-loyalty to king, upholder of estates, anxiety over heresy-make him worthy of careful study beside his better-known contemporaries. Of particular note: MS Douce 302 preserves Audelay's own alliterative Marcolf and Solomon, a poem thought to be descended from Langland's Piers Plowman. The Audelay Manuscript also contains unique copies of other alliterative poems of the ornate style seen in Gawain and the Green Knight and The Pistel of Swete Susan. These pieces are Paternoster and Three Dead Kings, both set at the end of the book. Whether or not they are Audelay's own compositions, they seem certain to be his own selections. Audelay also displays a persistent habit of sequencing materials in generic and devotionally affective ways. His is a pious sensibility delicately honed by reverence for the liturgy and by an awe of God. That Audelay's poetry can awaken us to new poetic sensitivities in medieval devotional verse is reason enough to bring him into the ambit of canonical fifteenth-century English poets.
This collection of fifteen essays looks at the theme of decadence and its recurring manifestations in European literature and literary criticism from medieval times to the present day. Various definitions of the term are explored, including the notion of decadence as physical decay. Some of the essays draw parallels between modernist and postmodernist notions of decadence. Similarities are detected between fin de siècle decadence at the end of the nineteenth century (which reaches its apotheosis in the character of Eugene Wrayburn in Our Mutual Friend) and depictions of decadence in our own age as we enter the new millennium.
Orpheus, the Thracian signer who charmed nature with the music of his lyre and traveled to the underworld to win back his wife, Ewydice, is a familiar figure in Western culture. Yet, as each age modified his deeds and altered the narrative to make the Orpheus myth conform to the values of the day, his legend acquired many new and surprising meanings. Friedman examines the various reshaping's of the myth from the Hellenistic age through the late Middle Ages. He presents primarily a literary study, but draws as well upon art and iconography, indicating how literary characterizations of Orpheus gave rise to new iconographical details for his portrayals in art, which in turn led to different portrayals in literature. He first outlines the figure of Orpheus in antiquity. He continues with an examination of the significant conceptual changes in the Orpheus myth. In the religious and philosophical writings of Hellenistic Jews and, later, Christians, Orpheus appears as a monotheist. He emerges as a Good Shepherd figure in late antique art and eventually is identified with Christ as a guide of men's souls to the afterlife. In the Middle Ages, Orpheus' relationship with Ewydice gains importance. The pair first serve a didactic and moralizing purpose, coming together as in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, more as the abstractions of reason and passion than as tragic lovers. In the later Middle Ages, however, they appear as a secular couple who illustrate the power of the god Amor over the human heart. Orpheus becomes a courtly knight and the writer of elegant love lyrics. The blending of these two medieval traditions is seen in Robert Henryson's Orpheus and Eurydice. Friedman pays special attention to this work as well as to the romance Sir Orfeo. Thus, the propagation of religious belief—one of the primary concerns of the early Middle Ages— was reflected in the early conceptions of Orpheus. Later, with the growth of the courtly love tradition Orpheus and Eurydice became significant as lovers. This book illustrates the vitality and flexibility that a myth must possess as it adapts to different eras and embodies the interests and concerns of each.
Another island in the Great Ocean has many sinful and malevolent women, who have precious gems in their eyes.' In his Book of Marvels and Travels, Sir John Mandeville describes a journey from Europe to Jerusalem and on into Asia, and the many wonderful and monstrous peoples and practices in the East. He tells us about the Sultan in Cairo, the Great Khan in China, and the mythical Christian prince Prester John. There are giants and pygmies, cannibals and Amazons, headless humans and people with a single foot so huge it can shield them from the sun . Forceful and opinionated, the narrator is by turns bossy, learned, playful, and moralizing, with an endless curiosity about different cultures. Written in the fourteenth century, the Book is a captivating blend of fact and fantasy, an extraordinary travel narrative that offers some revealing and unexpected attitudes towards other races and religions. It was immensely popular, and numbered among its readers Chaucer, Columbus, and Thomas More. Anthony Bale's new translation emphasizes the book's readability, and his introduction and notes bring us closer to Mandeville's medieval worldview. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
This book presents a theory of the politics of irony and tests this theory through readings of political theory texts and through an analysis of the politics of the contemporary anti-nuclear movement, and argues that political writing must be ironic.
Employing a range of approaches to examine how "monster-talk" pervades not only popular culture but also public policy through film and other media, this book is a "one-stop shop" of sorts for students and instructors employing various approaches and media in the study of "teratologies," or discourses of the monstrous.
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