Editors: George W. Tuma, Professor of English, and Dinah Hazell, Independent Scholar
Hosted by the English Department, San Francisco State University

 

Volume 2- March 2003

We are pleased to present the second volume of Medieval Forum. The articles cover a broad range of interests, experience and expression corresponding to a diverse readership, and we hope that they will spark a lively dialog. You may contact the authors directly, and/or you may submit your comments on the articles and the website to the editors for posting.


CONTENTS


The Acts of Matthew and Andrew in the City of Cannibals
Tom Sharp

In the second century after the death of Jesus, legends arose to fill the gaps about which the New Testament is silent, particularly the experiences of the apostles whom Jesus had instructed to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19), even "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). These legends of the apostles entertained early Christians for hundreds of years. The story of The Acts of Matthew and Andrew in the City of Cannibals was written down in Greek probably shortly before 400 A.D. by an Egyptian monk. The city of cannibals was Marmadonia, thought to be a town in Scythia, now in eastern Crimea; Andrew starts his journey from the land of Achaia, a region of Scythia on the east coast of the Black Sea. Presented here is a translation into modern English that follows the Old English translation of a lost Latin translation of the Greek text.

Hypertext: A Sacred (He)Art? Cor ad cor loquitur from Augustine to Shelley Jackson
Martin L. Warren

Postmodern thinking holds that the subject–the self–is decentered, fragmented, and erratic. An examination of this principle requires that the subject be studied through the writings of the pre-modern, modern, and postmodern eras. An analysis of the medieval spiritual practice of cor ad cor loquitur and the use of the newly evolving form of writing known as hypertext, particularly the hypertext novel, leads to an interesting conclusion, i.e., the mechanism of self-reflection, central to cor ad cor loquitur, resides in the rhetorical structure of hypertext.

Rethinking Marie
Dinah Hazell

Marie de France is traditionally associated with the English court of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. This essay reexamines that assumption through the consideration of linguistic evidence, geographhical descriptions in Marie's works, her self-identification as being from France, and her dedication of the Lais and Fables to unnamed courtly figures. This “rethinking” offers alternative perspectives that reposition the political climate in which she wrote, free the dating of her works and assessment of her career, and offer an enriched understanding of Marie’s poems.

Web Spotlight: Medieval Portal Sites
Daniel T. Kline

This feature brings attention to a select number of related medieval sources available on the web and offers succinct descriptions of their worth and how they might be used by students and scholars, drawing on the work of dedicated medieval scholars who have been posting materials online since the Internet boom began almost ten years ago.

Book Review: Christopher Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain 850-1520.

 


Submissions are now being invited and reviewed for Volume 4, scheduled for December 2004 with a submission deadline of 15 September 2004. Please see the submission guidelines if you would like to submit an article, book review or other item of interest to fellow medievalists. If you have any questions, please contact the editors.

Contributors retain the copyright to their works and should be contacted directly with reprint and distribution requests. All citations from works distributed on this website must be fully and accurately attributed.


Updated 3/30/03