Making Difference in Medieval and Early Modern IberiaUniversity of Notre Dame Press, 2005 - 218 pages In this engaging study Jean Dangler examines the way that ideas of difference were forged in four types of medieval Iberian discourse: muwashshah/jarcha poems from al-Andalus, Andalusi "cutting poems," medical literature about the body, and portrayals of the monster. According to Dangler, these texts demonstrate the two fundamental precepts of medieval Iberian alterity: multifaceted subject formation and the embrace of contrasts and the negative. Medieval Iberia was a multicultural territory of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian societies. These communities had constant geographic, cultural, political, and economic contact with one another. Because medieval Iberia was not hierarchical and homogenous, medieval subjectivity was not always marked by essential qualities of character, but was mutable and shifting. The adverse was often esteemed in the making of meaning and the forging of the social order. Dangler explores how the four discourses she analyzes changed in the early modern period, from an acceptance of difference to more rigid concepts of subjectivity and the marginalization of difference. This shift accompanied the rise of the Castilian nation-state and its imposition of static hierarchies of value. This book will appeal to a broad range of medievalists. It makes an important contribution to the growing interest in medieval Iberia and offers a nuanced understanding of medieval history and culture in general. |
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... reader's wishes . The work sometimes juxta- poses holy and profane love , but it also obscures them , leaving readers and listeners uncertain about whether love for women or for God constitutes good love . The Lba leaves this question ...
... readers that the medianera's monstrous signs foretell ruinous outcomes.1 Rojas demonstrates that readers must avoid the mistakes made by nobles who trust Celestina and overlook or misinterpret the certain danger of her monstrous signals ...
... reader had to uncover correctly and follow the path to transcen- dence.46 Isidore of Seville wrote that letters ( litterae ) opened roads to readers : Se las llama litterae ( letras ) , que viene a ser como legiterae , porque van ...