Volume 1 - September 2002
We are pleased to present the first 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 Vulnerable
Body of Havelok the Dane
Donna Crawford
The Middle English verse romance Havelok the Dane provides a complex
evocation of the construction of English national identity. By
the narratives end, the transformation of the Danish Havelok
into an English king makes clear that national identity is malleable
rather than fixed. One of the factors enabling this malleability
is the poems representation of different figures of the
human body. This article examines how Havelok the Dane manifests
the power relations that structure metaphorical inscriptions,
such as the body politic, by representing the vulnerability of
the individual body.
Imperfect
Heroes and the Consolations of Boethius
Peter F. Camarda
This paper examines an ambiguity in Chaucers vision of passionate
love in The Knights Tale. The tale is usually seen as a
courtly romance: the characters suffer in the name of a romantic,
pagan love and the resolution appears to turn around the issue
of marriage and physical consummation. This paper argues that
Boethian ideas provide a counter-argument to the courtly perspective.
For Boethius, passionate love is a false ideal, and Chaucers
treatment of Arcites and Palamons romantic suffering,
when examined closely, suggests a Boethian theme of renouncing
carnal passion and trusting instead to stable faith
in the Christian God.
The Warreners
Tale
E. D. Schragg
Choosing the Haberdasher to tell the next tale,
Harry Bailey fails to reestablish order among his drunken unruly
pilgrims, whereupon the Prioress steps in to govern ther
oure hooste hadde lak. The Warrener, a portreiture
of sangwynitee, agrees to her suggestion that he tell a
tale, but he explains, rewde metres make my pencel,
and tells his fellow pilgrims, ich wil yow telle a tale
now in prose. The tale is Chaucers apparent reworking
of the matter of Monty Python, which stynteth abruptly
when the Wife of Bath can no longer abide its preposterousness.
Resurrection:
Representation v. Reality in a Miracle of St John of Beverley
Susan E. Wilson
A thirteenth-century miracle story relates the story of how a
small boy is raised from death inside the church of St John at
Beverley whilst a mystery play of Christs resurrection is
being performed in the churchyard outside. The author establishes
parallels between the original defining event, its representation
in play, and Gods physical re-enactment in order to demonstrate
the inadequacy of dramatic performance to transmit truth. At the
same time, he interprets the miracle as signifying the whole Christian
message from Abraham, to Christs incarnation, death and
resurrection.
Courtesy Books,
Comedy, and the Merchant Masculinity
of Oxford Balliol College MS
354
Janine Rogers
This article examines courtesy books and comic texts found in
a well-known commonplace book, Oxford Balliol College MS 354 (Richard
Hill's book). I propose that the book as a whole may reflect ideologies
of gender and class in the mercantile community of late medieval/early
modern London, through which children (especially boys) may have
obtained a social and moral education, transmitted in household
books like Balliol 354. The article explores that didactic role
of comic texts in the pedagogical process, suggesting that humorous
material was not merely recreational in such miscellanies, but
also educational.
God Our Mother:
The Feminine Cosmology of Julian of Norwich
and Hildegard of Bingen
Jennifer Hudson
This paper explores the feminist implications of Julian of Norwich's
and Hildegard of Bingens feminine cosmic visions. Both women
revolutionize the imago Dei into one bearing feminine characteristics,
maintain that the feminine aspects of divinity become the door
to an intense union between God and humanity, and present images
of a gender-balanced deity. Although Julians vision seems
to place women and the feminine within a more positive context
than Hildegards, both women extend their visions beyond
misogynous and androcentric ideologies, thus shaping an image
of divinity that affirms, heals, and unites women. Insofar as
Julian and Hildegard arrive at portraits of a non-binary divinity
and cosmos, these womens visions could be considered feminist.
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
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