MLR, 103.4, 2oo8 I 0I a triangulatingmanceuvre-in the lightof the critical awareness of the role of tourism inCaribbean culture; Aime Cesaire and Simone Schwartz-Bart are explored illumi natingly through the spatial optic of scale and of a resistant irreducibility related to this, a novel approach which allows Melas to posit 'a schema of inferiorization and, correlatively, the articulation of thegrounds fora collective response to it' (p. 175). Melas's overarching thesis is that a postcolonial comparatism worthy of thatname must distance itself from the critical legacies of equivalence, and explore instead fi gures of incommensurability. Drawing inparticular on Edouard Glissant's concept of 'Relation' and Jean-Luc Nancy's of 'com-paraison', she posits 'a ground of compari son that is common but not unified' (p. xiii). There is thereforenothing celebratory about this study,whose author acknowledges from theoutset-reflecting inparticu laron issues of gender-that 'apostcolonial comparatist's desire foran emancipated comparatism is qualified and undercut by a focus on the incursion of contrary and incommensurable forces on it' (p. xiv). This is a subtle, intelligent book, illuminat ing in the insights itbrings to thework of individual authors. At the same time, it serves as a cautious, significant, and double-edged contribution, both topostcolonial reconfigurations of theComparative Literary field and to comparatist challenges to postcolonialism's own 'amoebic' (p. I 14) tendencies. UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL CHARLES FORSDICK Cannibalism inHigh Medieval English Literature. By HEATHER BLURTON. Basing stoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2007. 202 pp. ?36.95. ISBN 978-1-4039-7443-3. On Farting: Language and Laughter in the Middle Ages. By VALERIE ALLEN. Ba singstoke:PalgraveMacmillan. 2007. xiv+239PP. ?22.99. ISBN978-o-312 23493-5. These volumes, part of theNew Middle Ages series, greet the repellentwith a cheer. The former, with fivechapters, is clearly organized; the latter,a sub-Freudian phan tasmagoria, rather less so. Let us startwith the first. Heather Blurton begins with theOld English poem Andreas, where she associates the cannibal Mermedonians of this saint's Life with ninth-century Viking invasions of England. She believes Andreas was written in the aftermath of that (which is possible, though one would like hard evidence for it). She thus thinks that in the poem's political vision 'Mermedonia becomes England, conversion becomes con quest', and the legend of St Andrew is 'an extended consideration ofDanish invasion and Anglo-Saxon reaction' (p. 33). This seems rather strained. Alfred's compatriots were Christians but not cannibals, the Mermedonians were cannibals but not Chris tians.The conclusion hardly follows. After Andreas, theBeowulf Manuscript. Here we encounter not only Beowulf's Grendel but also thehomily on St Christopher, Wonders of the East, Alexander's Let ter to Aristotle, and Judith. Sisam long ago proposed that thisworkaday manuscript was compiled fora patron interested in monsters. Acting on thehint,Blurton assumes everymonster hides a cannibal. This includes even St Christopher, described by the Old EnglishMartyrology (p. 39) as having a dog's head and coming froma landwhere men eat each other. For Beowulf it leads to discussion of eotenas, normally taken as 'giants', though the author (p. 54), linking it with Old English etan 'eat', thinks it is better translated as 'cannibals'. Chapter 3 deals with the age ofWilliam ofMalmesbury, Geoffrey ofMonmouth, and Gerald ofWales. In theirwritings cannibalism is surprisingly common, as in nightmares ofWilliam Rufus, warning him on his evil life.Chapters 4 and 5 go east with theTartars, whom Matthew Paris saw asman-eating savages, and the Saracens, I I02 Reviews regarded asmuch the same, although romances such as theMiddle English Richard Coer de Lyon cheerfully turn the tables, describing how famished Crusaders some times ended up by eating Saracens. The book closes with a postscript on cannibals and Columbus. When he arrived inwhat he thought to his dying day was China or thereabouts (though we know itwas theNew World), theywere amongst the first people he expected tomeet. The author's theme is gruesome. Her arguments are often hard-driven. Yet she assembles much new material, making us look at her subject again. Her book will thus be a firstport of call for researchers on anthropophagy. Some may wish to test its views on the twelfth-centuryFour Branches of the...