Medieval Literary theory

This essay traces the history, current state, and potential future of comparative literature. The great expansions have coincided with aspirations for international understanding. The term first emerged after the Napoleonic wars. The field soared in the late 19th century, became a discipline after the Second World War, and experienced its most vigorous growth (of departments and programs) in the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

Comparative literature has always worried its supporters as well as its skeptics. At the same time it has experienced a constant crisis within. In each episode it has responded by enlarging its purview and self-definition. Thus in the late 20th century it transcended the European literatures that had long been its bedrock to embrace East-West literary and cultural relations in ever-broader outward orbits, encompassing eventually first Edward Said's orientalism, then Homi Bhabha's deconstructivist postcolonialism, and finally Gayatri Spivak's eclecticism. The models that served during the extended pax americana seem poorly suited to terrorism, war, and globalization. Supranationalism cannot be lightly readjusted to fit transnationalism. But comparative literature can and will survive, so long as balances persist between theory and practice, so long as interdisciplinarity does not come at the cost of disciplinarity, and so long as the indivisible relationships uniting humanism, humanities, and humaneness are not forgotten. While comparative literature retains its emphases on language-training and critical skills, and while it satisfies desires of students to transcend boundaries culturally, interpretatively, and otherwise, it will not only always remain alive but even often thrive.

This essay  presents part of a larger study on Boccaccio's  "Filocolo" ("Per difetto rintegrare", 2004). The essays deals in particular with the rewriting of the Old French romance "Floire et Blancheflor" in  the  "Filocolo"  in the light of medieval epistemology and literary theory as  Fiammetta's request to the composer of the work raises matters of interest to both narratology and poetics.  I argue that before his defense of poetry in Book XIV of the  Genealogie", Boccaccio had already formulated his own literary theory and the premise of his defense of poetry: poetry has its own truth. The "Filocolo" through the voice of the poet-philosopher affirms the autonomy of poetry and its "veritatis similima", and most possible, reveals Boccaccio’s lifetime desire to be considered the “seventh” among “cotanto senno”.

Was ist eine Gabe? Löschen Tauschcharakter und Reziprozität die Gabe aus? Gibt es eine Gabe, die nicht erwidert werden will? Gibt es einen Überschuss des Gebens über die Gabe hinaus? Der Band untersucht solche und benachbarte Fragen, die aus den einschlägigen Theoriediskussionen bekannt sind, an literarischen Modellierungen von Liebesgaben in vormodernen Texten. Im Liebesdiskurs, so scheint es, können Gaben einen besonders prekären Status erhalten: kann hier doch eine Tausch-, Substitutions- und Vergeltungslogik zur Anwendung kommen auf das, was gemeinhin als inkommensurabel gilt – die Liebe. Zugleich sind Liebesgaben in vormoderner Literatur von hoher Relevanz für poetologische und narratologische Fragestellungen: Ihre literarische Modellierung kann zum 'mise en abyme' werden, zum Rückverweis des poetischen Textes auf sich selbst; Liebesgaben-Entwürfe werden ferner vielfach zu zentralen Brennpunkten und Schaltstellen narrativer Strukturen und Dynamiken.
Die Einleitung entwirft Perspektiven für eine "Poetik der Liebesgabe" mit Fokus auf die weltliche volkssprachliche Literatur des Mittelalters.

Literary theory accounts for the nature of written discourse and the methods of interpreting it. It seeks to articulate the principles underlying phenomena like language, style, genre, authorship, linguistic truth, and fiction. In the Middle Ages, or the millennium stretching between 500 and 1500 CE, no single discourse or discipline was responsible for literary theory, nor did the Middle Ages have a term exactly equivalent to what "literary theory" means in literary studies today. Nonetheless, the thinkers and writers working in Western Christendom regularly investigated and debated the workings of written language. They did so as part of varied intellectual undertakings that ranged from interpreting sacred scripture to reconsidering pagan myths, and from making manuscripts to teaching children to read. As historians of medieval thought, we may be tempted to delimit medieval literary theory to the systematic treatises composed for medieval schools and universities. But the theorization of literature also took place in less academic and less expository frameworks. Medieval poems and fictional narratives often included self-conscious reflections on their own meaning-making, and the layout of just one manuscript page could testify to broader notions of textuality undergirding the scribe's work. The practical know-how entailed in the everyday activities of medieval literacy-in reading texts, listening to them, copying, translating, commissioning, or composing them-possessed its own theoretical significance. Such activities manifested specific ideas of what literature could be and do.

Abstract:     
This book examines the doctrine of transgenerational punishment found in the Decalogue: the idea that God punishes sinners vicariously and extends the punishment due them to three or four generations of their progeny. Already in ancient Israel, even though it was a “God-given” law, the unfairness of punishing innocent people merely for being the children or grandchildren of wrongdoers was clearly recognized. A series of inner-biblical and post-biblical responses to the rule demonstrates that later writers were able to criticize, reject, and replace this problematic doctrine with the alternative notion of individual retribution. From this perspective, the formative canon is the source of its own renewal: it fosters critical reflection upon the textual tradition and sponsors intellectual freedom.

To round out the volume, a final chapter provides a valuable bibliographical essay on the distinctive approach of “inner-biblical exegesis.” This resource will support further study and shows the contributions of European, Israeli, and North American scholars. The volume opens new perspectives on current debates within the humanities about canonicity, textual authority, and authorship. There is an extended discussion of the formation of the German literary canon (Mme de Stael; Heinrich Heine and the “portatives Kanon”) and of German intellectual history (Immanuel Kant).

Keywords: Decalogue, Divine Justice, Canon, Intertextuality, Allusion, Immanuel Kant, Inner-Biblical Exegesis, Relecture, Fortschreibung, Kanon, Textuality, Literary Theory, Hammurabi, Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, Scribal Curriculum, Ruth, Authorship, Ezekiel 18, Hittite Laws, Lamentations 5:7

From the back cover (paperback edition, 2010):

“With this study Levinson demonstrates again how he masterfully integrates his own exegetical brilliance into larger theoretical frameworks beyond the constraints of biblical studies. Especially helpful to the specialist and colleagues from other fields is a long essay on the history of research about rewriting processes inside the Hebrew Bible.” —Journal of Ancient Judaism

"This just might be the best book I’ve read in a long time. It’s challenged my assumptions about the development of the Hebrew Bible and the role of innovation alongside preservation. . . . All in all, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the issues of early biblical interpretation and the formation of the biblical canon. Specialists across the board in religious studies and biblical studies would profit from a closer look at Levinson’s book. I’m recommending it to everyone I know—NT students, rabbinics experts, early Christian studies people, Hebrew Bible colleagues — you know who you are — read this book!"
—Biblia Hebraica Blog

"The bibliographical essay is an excellent overview of research on what is now often called ‘inner-biblical exegesis,’ and it will serve as a superb tool for beginners and seasoned researchers alike. The other essays span a vast array of methodological problems and exegetical insights and are at the forefront of current research into legal traditions in the HB. A highly welcome volume." — Society for Old Testament Study Book List

"The book deserves a wide readership. It would serve well as a text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses that deal with inner-biblical exegesis. One can also hope that scholars in other fields will read it and take to heart Levinson’s argument for the reintegration of biblical studies into the core of academic work in the humanities. In addition, there are faith communities that would be encouraged by Levinson’s insight into the nature of canon and the necessity for ongoing reinterpretation of tradition. The book’s research is thorough, its argument forceful, its writing elegant, and it is blessedly short. If books can be placed into tribes, may this one’s increase." — Review of Biblical Literature

The early translation history of 1 Corinthians 13:12, famous for the phrase "through a glass darkly" from the Geneva Bible (by way of the King James Version), shows not only what is lost in that translation, but how it is symptomatic of the decline of the medieval poetics of enigma in the transition to modernity.

About midway in Pinter's play, there is a joke about a cigar.  The joke is not a spoken one, and it is a joke on a well-known sentence of Dr. Freud.  Freud's joke is deeper than Freudian symbolic interpretation would have it, however, for the claim he makes in the joke is that the thing in itself of desire can, at times, be grasped, held, and smoked.  It is the claim then, that some things are at some times not signs at all, but things merely.  Pure objects:  Thus id would have it, would be able to have it: pure pleasure.  Freud, that fabulous reader of analogy, is, in the instance of this joke, a literalist, denying that things have also themselves a signification, a spiritual sense.  Pinter, who makes a joke of Freud's joke, sees the abyssal depth of the pun: things are signs of further things, which are signs of yet other things, which are…, and his play, The Homecoming, provides an extraordinary exemplum upon which to practice medieval reading, reading both signs and things.
THIS IS THE TYPESCRIPT, FOR SCHOLARLY NOTATION PLEASE USE THE JOURNAL

Was ist eine Gabe? Löschen Tauschcharakter und Reziprozität die Gabe aus? Gibt es eine Gabe, die nicht erwidert werden will? Gibt es einen Überschuss des Gebens über die Gabe hinaus? Der Band untersucht solche und benachbarte Fragen, die aus den einschlägigen Theoriediskussionen bekannt sind, an literarischen Modellierungen von Liebesgaben in vormodernen Texten. Im Liebesdiskurs, so scheint es, können Gaben einen besonders prekären Status erhalten: kann hier doch eine Tausch-, Substitutions- und Vergeltungslogik zur Anwendung kommen auf das, was gemeinhin als inkommensurabel gilt – die Liebe. Zugleich sind Liebesgaben in vormoderner Literatur von hoher Relevanz für poetologische und narratologische Fragestellungen: Ihre literarische Modellierung kann zum 'mise en abyme' werden, zum Rückverweis des poetischen Textes auf sich selbst; Liebesgaben-Entwürfe werden ferner vielfach zu zentralen Brennpunkten und Schaltstellen narrativer Strukturen und Dynamiken. Die Beiträge gehen auf zwei Tagungen zu Liebesgaben in der lateinischen, deutschen, englischen und italienischen Literatur der Vormoderne zurück, die einander mit unterschiedlichen Akzentsetzungen ergänzten; dies spiegelt sich in der zweiteiligen Anlage des Bandes, der sich im ersten Teil kommunikativen, semiotischen und performativen Aspekten und im zweiten Teil narratologischen und poetologischen Dimensionen der Liebesgabe widmet.

There has been a tendency in Gower scholarship to emphasize what Genius is not doing in the Confessio Amantis: the stories he does not tell, the sins he fails to discuss, and the interpretations he does not pursue. Some critics view Genius's supposed deficiencies as intentional failings designed by Gower to challenge his readers; still, these readings are centered on absence rather than presence. This paper offers a new interpretation of Genius's role in the Confessio, and, in particular, of Genius's use of classical exempla, by arguing that the absence of allegorized versions of these tales is, in fact, the result of a conscious decision to use an alternate method of reading ---ethical reading- rather than allegorical interpretation. Instead of merely appropriating or desecularizing "old bokes," the process of ethical reading preserves the status of secular texts while reframing them to make them morally useful for new generations of readers.

ABSTRACT This paper takes Edward Said’s foundational critique of Western discourses of knowledge about the “Orient” as a way of intervening in the tradition of reading Chaucer’s only scientific text, The Treatise on the Astrolabe. I argue for recognizing the “colour” of Chaucer’s originary text of “Messahala, an Arabic astronomer, by religion a Jew”, and against naturalising the Treatise as an “unmarked white” text. My argument is that there are cultural and political values at stake in Chaucer’s pedagogical text.

Questo libro esamina la dottrina della punizione «fino alla quarta generazione» presente nel Decalogo. Benché questa fosse una legge «di origine divina», il fatto di punire innocenti solo perché figli o nipoti di malfattori fu apertamente considerato ingiusto da parte dell’Israele antico. Gli autori di epoca successiva erano in grado di criticare, rifiutare e addirittura sostituire questa dottrina problematica con la nozione alternativa di retribuzione individuale. Il canone in via di formazione costituisce la fonte del suo stesso rinnovamento: esso favorisce una riflessione critica sulla tradizione testuale e promuove la libertà intellettuale. Grazie a questa creativa impresa ermeneutica gli scribi riuscirono a travasare il nuovo nell’antico; soltanto così l’antica parola divina poté sostenere ancora e per sempre la vita del
popolo.

Il volume, al fine di incoraggiare ulteriori approfondimenti, include un prezioso saggio bibliografico sui diversi approcci all’esegesi intra-biblica, presentando i contributi di studiosi europei, israeliani e nordamericani.

KEYWORDS
Decalogue, Divine Justice, Canon, Intertextuality, Allusion, Immanuel Kant, inner-biblical exegesis, relecture, Fortschreibung, Kanon, Textuality, Literary Theory, Hammurabi, Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, scribal curriculum, Ruth, Authorship, Ezekiel 18, Hittite Laws, Lamentations 5:7; Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 7, Deuteronomy 5; Targum; Deut 24; individual responsibility; repentance; transgenerational punishment; vicarious punishment, Kanonformel, Mme de Stael, Land der Dichter und Denker; Heinrich Heine; portatives Kanon; portable canon; Immanuel Kant; literary approach to Bible; legal hermeneutics; interdisciplinary.

Call for papers
Orderic Vitalis:
New Perspectives on the Historian and His World

(9-11 April 2013, St John’s College, University of Durham)

The organising committee of the Durham University Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference 'Orderic Vitalis: New Perspectives on the historian and his world' invite abstracts from prospective speakers. This event, funded by the Durham University IMRS, will provide a forum for the dissemination of new research into the life and works of the monastic scholar, Orderic Vitalis. With plans already in place to publish a 'companion' volume on Orderic, this conference will aim to re-invigorate existing work and open new lines of research around a figure whose legacy has proven vital to scholars of the Anglo-Norman world.

While the conference welcomes papers on a wide scope of topics, we particularly invite abstracts for papers relating to the following areas:

•The manuscript history of Orderic's Historia ecclesiastica.

•Orderic's scholarly and scribal career away from the Historia ecclesiastica.

•Orderic’s travels, administrative activities, and studies away from Saint-Évroul.

•Orderic’s world view and his networks of knowledge-exchange and transfer.

•The 'rediscovery' of the Historia ecclesiastica by early modern audiences, and Orderic's subsequent influence on the development of Anglo-Norman studies.

Prospective speakers are invited to submit abstracts of between 250-300 words, and should also include their contact details (name, affiliation, e-mail address). The deadline for submissions is 1 September 2012. Limited bursaries towards travel costs will be offered to postgraduate speakers. If you wish to apply for one of these, please indicate this when submitting an abstract.

For further information about Orderic Vitalis: New perspectives on the historian and his world or to submit an abstract, please email Charlie Rozier, at: c.c.rozier@durham.ac.uk or Dan Roach at: dr229@exeter.ac.uk, or visit:
www.dur.ac.uk/imrs/conferences/orderic_vitalis/

Recently scholars have taken increasing account medieval literary theory and criticism (particularly as it is expressed in the Latin commentary tradition) in their readings of medieval French poetry. Nevertheless, the degree to which those critical texts are themselves complicit in the rhetorical strategies and ideological function of the kinds of texts that they purport to explicate has largely escaped comment. This paper therefore investigates the rhetorical figures exploited in medieval Latin critical discourse: specifically the metaphors for allegory (integument), satire (nakedness), and poetic material (the not-yet-dressed body). These figures reappear in Jean de Meun’s continuation of the Roman de la Rose, in the speeches of Reason and the Jealous Husband and in the exempla of Mars and Venus and Pygmalion. Through a reading that juxtaposes these passages to commentaries and artes poetriae, I argue that, while the critical discourse’s largely implicit figuration of text as female body provides an interpretive key to the romance, the latter in turn reveals the limits and contradictions of the former. Thus the paper raises larger questions about the relation that literary criticism establishes with literary texts and about the modern critic’s complicity with specific kinds of medieval reading or classes of medieval readership.

Für den praktisch-theologischen Diskurs des Mittelalters ist das Problem der Zeichenhaftigkeit der Textkomposition von großer Bedeutung. Verschiedene Modi der kompositionellen Ikonizität werden am Beispiel des anonymen kompilativen Erbauungsbuches "Geistlicher Herzen Bavngart" (2. Hälfte des 13. Jh.) und einiger kleinerer Schriften Davids von Augsburg (gest. 1272) betrachtet. Dabei weist die Ikonizität des Textaufbaus in einem Großwerk einerseits und in einem Kleintext (etwa einem Kapitel im Buch oder einer selbständigen kleinen Predigt bzw. einem Traktat) andererseits verschiedene Typen auf. Die Willkürlichkeit der Kapitelfolge im "Geistlicher Herzen Bavngart" weist nicht auf den Mangel an Dispositionslogik, sondern vielmehr kann als Aufbauprinzip gelten, da solche Komposition den Gattungsbegriff Garten semiotisch unterstützt. Dagegen ist der Aufbau der kleineren Textstücke oft auf eine bestimmte Zahl orientiert. Die erste Möglichkeit der Benutzung ist die klassifizierende Aufzählung der Begriffe. Es können mehrere Zahlensprüche in einem Text vorhanden sein. In der Regel umfassen sie den ganzen Text nicht. Vielmehr ist eine zahlensymbolisch orientierte Komposition (Zahlenkomposition) weitaus ikonisch. Als Mittel der Textgestaltung spielt dabei der syntaktische Parallelismus eine unüberschätzbare Rolle. Die entstehende Frage nach der Existenz eines entsprechenden ikonischen Wahrnehmungskodes in der schriftlichen Kultur des deutschen Mittelalters soll positiv beantwortet werden. Solche Erscheinungen wie die emblematische Predigt und dispositive Allegorie als Leistungen der hochentwickelten Ars - Praedicandi - Tradition beweisen, daß die Komposition einer theologisoh-erbaulichen Schrift auch einen zusätzlichen Zeichenwert besessen konnte.

This paper examines the relationship between the patrons, benefactors and heroes of Orderic's monastery of St. Evroul and his inclusion of an account of the First Crusade in Book IX of the Historia Ecclesiastica. By examining one of his unique additions to the established narrative of the event, which he had inherited from Baldric of Bourgueil, it argues that Orderic's interest in events in the East was driven by the participation of local Norman personalities in the First Crusade. Rather than being a digression from his main theme of monastic and local Norman history, their involvement in this momentous event triggered the extension of his purposes into a major new thematic and geographic area. Yet at its core the Historia Ecclesiastica remained a thoroughly local history and Orderic's additions to the narrative of the First Crusade demonstrate this repeatedly. The example of Hugh Bunel is typical of these. To Orderic and the monks of St Evroul he was a local hero long before his involvement in the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, and Orderic's interruption of the narrative at this climactic moment in the story was a deliberate reminder of this, for even when discussing the First Crusade he sought to construct a local history, albeit on a massive scale.