Download or read book The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought written by John Block Friedman and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2000-06-01 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Monstrous Races in Medieval Art written by John Friedman and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Saracens Demons Jews written by Debra Higgs Strickland and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These images, which reached a broad and socially varied audience across Western Europe, appeared in virtually all artistic media, including illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, sculpture, metalwork, and tapestry.".
Download or read book Classic Readings on Monster Theory written by Asa Simon Mittman and published by ARC Reference. This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Companion volumes Classic Readings on Monster Theoryand Primary Sources on Monstersgather a wide range of readings and sources to enable us to see and understand what monsters can show us about what it means to be human. The first volume introduces important modern theorists of the monstrous and aims to provide interpretive tools and strategies for students to use to grapple with the primary sources in the second volume, which brings together some of the most influential and indicative monster narratives from the West.
Download or read book The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous written by Asa Simon Mittman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of monster studies has grown significantly over the past few years and this companion provides a comprehensive guide to the study of monsters and the monstrous from historical, regional and thematic perspectives. The collection reflects the truly multi-disciplinary nature of monster studies, bringing in scholars from literature, art history, religious studies, history, classics, and cultural and media studies. The companion will offer scholars and graduate students the first comprehensive and authoritative review of this emergent field.
Download or read book Mediaeval Latin and French Bestiaries written by Florence McCulloch and published by Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 1960 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first English-language study of bestiaries, mediaeval works that described and illustrated animals, birds, and other creatures. Florence McCulloch describes the nature of the Latin Physiologus, which is frequently cited as among the earliest examples of serious works of natural history.
Download or read book The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages written by Geraldine Heng and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book challenges the common belief that race and racisms are phenomena that began only in the modern era.
Download or read book The Nave Sculpture of V zelay written by Kirk Ambrose and published by PIMS. This book was released on 2006 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This scholarly work fundamentally changes the way we think about the monastic church of Vezelay and its sculptures. Kirk Ambrose provides a new account of the celebrated sculptural ensemble at this important French Romanesque monastic church. Whereas scholarly attention in the past has focused almost exclusively on the Pentecostal portal, Ambrose devotes most of his analysis to the nave capitals. He considers how these works intersect with various aspects of monastic culture, from poetry to a sign language used during observed periods of silence. From this study it emerges how many of the sculptures resonated with communal practices and with interpretive modes in use at the site." "Deeming the attempt to uncover an underlying or unifying program to be an anachronistic project, Ambrose explores historically specific ways this ensemble cohered for medieval viewers. Covering a range of themes, including hagiography, ornament, and violence, he develops alternative approaches for the examination of serial imagery. As a result, this book has broad implications for the study of eleventh- and twelfth-century art in the West."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book The Book of Marvels and Travels written by Sir John Mandeville and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012-09-13 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. A captivating blend of fact and fantasy, Mandeville's Book is newly translated in an edition that brings us closer to Mandeville's worldview.
Download or read book Images of the Medieval Peasant written by Paul H. Freedman and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The medieval clergy, aristocracy, and commercial classes tended to regard peasants as objects of contempt and derision. In religious writings, satires, sermons, chronicles, and artistic representations peasants often appeared as dirty, foolish, dishonest, even as subhuman or bestial. Their lowliness was commonly regarded as a natural corollary of the drudgery of their agricultural toil. Yet, at the same time, the peasantry was not viewed as “other” in the manner of other condemned groups, such as Jews, lepers, Muslims, or the imagined “monstrous races” of the East. Several crucial characteristics of the peasantry rendered it less clearly alien from the elite perspective: peasants were not a minority, their work in the fields nourished all other social orders, and, most important, they were Christians. In other respects, peasants could be regarded as meritorious by virtue of their simple life, productive work, and unjust suffering at the hands of their exploitive social superiors. Their unrewarded sacrifice and piety were also sometimes thought to place them closest to God and more likely to win salvation. This book examines these conflicting images of peasants from the post-Carolingian period to the German Peasants’ War. It relates the representation of peasants to debates about how society should be organized (specifically, to how human equality at Creation led to subordination), how slavery and serfdom could be assailed or defended, and how peasants themselves structured and justified their demands. Though it was argued that peasants were legitimately subjugated by reason of nature or some primordial curse (such as that of Noah against his son Ham), there was also considerable unease about how the exploitation of those who were not completely alien—who were, after all, Christians—could be explained. Laments over peasant suffering as expressed in the literature might have a stylized quality, but this book shows how they were appropriated and shaped by peasants themselves, especially in the large-scale rebellions that characterized the late Middle Ages.
Download or read book The Hereford Mappa Mundi written by Gabriel Alington and published by Gracewing Publishing. This book was released on 1996 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Monster theory electronic resource written by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1996-11-15 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributors to Monster Theory consider beasts, demons, freaks and fiends as symbolic expressions of cultural unease that pervade a society and shape its collective behavior. Through a historical sampling of monsters, these essays argue that our fascination for the monstrous testifies to our continued desire to explore difference and prohibition.
Download or read book The Giant Hero in Medieval Literature written by Tina Marie Boyer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-05-18 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Giant Hero in Medieval Literature Tina Boyer counters the monstrous status of giants by arguing that they are more broadly legible than traditionally believed. Building on an initial analysis of St. Augustine’s City of God, Bernard of Clairvaux’s deliberations on monsters and marvels, and readings in Tomasin von Zerclaere’s Welsche Gast provide insights into the spectrum of antagonistic and heroic roles that giants play in the courtly realm. This approach places the figure of the giant within the cultural and religious confines of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and allows an in-depth analysis of epics and romances through political, social, religious, and gender identities tied to the figure of the giant. Sources range from German to French, English, and Iberian works.
Download or read book Race in Early Modern England written by J. Burton and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-08-20 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection makes available for the first time a rich archive of materials that illuminate the history of racial thought and practices in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. A comprehensive introduction shows how these writings are crucial for understanding the pre-Enlightenment lineages of racial categories.
Download or read book The Meanings of Nudity in Medieval Art written by Sherry C. M. Lindquist and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2012 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing a strangely neglected key issue in the history of art, this volume engages the variety and complexity of medieval representations of the unclothed human body. The Meanings of Nudity in Medieval Art breaks ground by offering a variety of approaches to explore the meanings of both male and female nudity in European painting, manuscripts and sculpture ranging from the late antique era to the fifteenth century.
Download or read book Medieval Monstrosity written by Charity Urbanski and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-10-13 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines various manifestations and understandings of the concept of monstrosity in medieval Europe around 500-1500 ce through a collection of contextual chapters and primary sources. The main chapters focus on a specific theme, a type of monster or representation of monstrosity, and consist of a contextual essay synthesizing recent scholarship on that theme, excerpts from primary sources and a bibliography of additional primary and secondary sources on the topics addressed in the chapter. In addition to building upon the wealth of scholarship on monsters and monstrosity produced in recent decades, the book engages with the current fascination with monsters in popular culture, especially in movies, television, and video games. The book presents a survey of medieval monstrosity for a non-specialist audience and provides a theoretical framework for interpreting the monstrous. This book is ideal for undergraduate students working on the theme of monstrosity, as well as being useful for undergraduate courses that cover the supernatural and manifestations of the monstrous covered in the book. With materials drawn from a wide range of medieval sources, it will also appeal to courses in English, French, Art History, and Medieval Studies.
Download or read book The Shape of Sex written by Leah DeVun and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 661 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, 2024 Haskins Medal, Medieval Academy of America Winner, 2023 Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize, History of Science Society Winner, 2022 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Historical Studies, American Academy of Religion Honorable Mention, 2023 John Boswell Prize, The Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender History (CLGBTH) Longlisted, 2022 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Studies, Lambda Literary Awards The Shape of Sex is a pathbreaking history of nonbinary sex, focusing on ideas and individuals who allegedly combined or crossed sex or gender categories from 200–1400 C.E. Ranging widely across premodern European thought and culture, Leah DeVun reveals how and why efforts to define “the human” so often hinged on ideas about nonbinary sex. The Shape of Sex examines a host of thinkers—theologians, cartographers, natural philosophers, lawyers, poets, surgeons, and alchemists—who used ideas about nonbinary sex as conceptual tools to order their political, cultural, and natural worlds. DeVun reconstructs the cultural landscape navigated by individuals whose sex or gender did not fit the binary alongside debates about animality, sexuality, race, religion, and human nature. The Shape of Sex charts an embrace of nonbinary sex in early Christianity, its brutal erasure at the turn of the thirteenth century, and a new enthusiasm for nonbinary transformations at the dawn of the Renaissance. Along the way, DeVun explores beliefs that Adam and Jesus were nonbinary-sexed; images of “monstrous races” in encyclopedias, maps, and illuminated manuscripts; justifications for violence against purportedly nonbinary outsiders such as Jews and Muslims; and the surgical “correction” of bodies that seemed to flout binary divisions. In a moment when questions about sex, gender, and identity have become incredibly urgent, The Shape of Sex casts new light on a complex and often contradictory past. It shows how premodern thinkers created a system of sex and embodiment that both anticipates and challenges modern beliefs about what it means to be male, female—and human.
