Medieval Literature Research Articles

TRANSLATION OF THE MYSTERY PLAY NOAH, FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCE THEORY

The general aim of this work was to translate the mystery play Noah, from medieval English literature. To this end, this article presents the theory behind the translation proposal: Dynamic Equivalence Theory (Nida, 2001). In addition to Nida (idem), our research was based on Orlin (2006), Herenkov (2011), Palmer (2008), Bell (1991), Venuti (1995) and Pym (2010). Since the methodological proposal is a Middle English work, we consulted online dictionaries of Middle English terms, online libraries specializing in medieval literature, and online translation tools. The result of this work (translation of the play Noah into Portuguese) can be found at the end of this article. In this way, we hope to have contributed to the democratization of reading, the dissemination of knowledge, and the perpetuation of knowledge.

“Pilgrims Speaking Angry Words: Change and Anger in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales”

Medieval literature presents emotions such as anger as negative and destructive for the development of the medieval subject and society and defines anger not as a positive constructive affect but as an emotive reaction that should be suppressed, controlled or avoided. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, written against a background of tremendous change generated by political and religious conflict, the Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt, acknowledges anger as an essential element of medieval culture although it does not give much space to the causes of it. The Canterbury pilgrims experience and perform anger as a result of the unstructured and fast change taking place in the traditional stabilities. Indeed, the changing society represented by the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales appears to have anger issues and accordingly is characterised by situations of conflict and emotional crises. The pilgrims are presented as failing in terms of conformity and obedience to the regulatory principles of the feudal structure also because they foster anger and have angry responses when they are expected to suppress, avoid and control their anger. Anger in this context is presented as an essential element of the new culture that produces it. This paper reads Chaucer’s representation of anger as an affect/emotion in the Canterbury Tales and argues that as an emotive/affective agent, anger performed by the defiant pilgrims represents and forms the cultural response to the pervasive change and its results in the medieval feudal social structure represented in the Canterbury Tales.

:Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture

:<i>Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture</i>

Mens, Manus, and Medieval Literature at MIT

Mens, Manus, and Medieval Literature at MIT

KYRILLOMETHODIKON – an Innovative Research Environment for Shared Access to Scientific Content

The Cyrillo-Methodian heritage is a common phenomenon of European value, promoting religious tolerance, cultural equality, and understanding of European cultural history and identity. The virtual cluster KYRILLOMETHODIKON developed at the Cyrillo-Methodian Research Centre (CMRC) at BAS is part of the Centre of Excellence "Heritage BG" (BG05M2OP001-1.001-0001 Project), aiming to provide structured knowledge on this phenomenon and its manifestations. The digital repository offers resources for research on the first stage of Slavic Christian culture with an accent on its Old Bulgarian part, reflecting the multidisciplinary research paradigm of the Centre: studies in medieval literature, linguistics, history, theology, art history, and anthropology. To ensure the educational socialisation of the research in these disciplines, a Scientific and Educational Interdisciplinary Centre for Cyrillo-Methodian studies was created within the framework of KYRILLOMETHODIKON, sharing educational tools for a wide range of audiences, including children, school students, undergraduates, and doctoral candidates.

Spatial Violence of the “Halls” in Old English and Old Norse Poetry

In the recent years, the scholarship of Urban Space has primarily focussed on the postmodernist discourse, but this essay, by connecting the Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse culture, takes up the subject of early mediaeval literature and the narrative of violence in urban spatial discourse. A leitmotif that keeps on figuring in Old English and Old Norse poetry is that of the ‘hall’ - a transcultural conjunctive space for transaction or exchange of both material goods such as fighting men, treasure and the like, and the non-material items such as martial honour, power, comradeship and the like. Though such a space easily seems to be a dispositif heterotopia, this essay explores how its (non-crisis) heterotopic motif, with the true manifestation of the ‘hetero’- an encapsulation of the ‘diversity of an emplacement of a cityscape’, is ruptured by an unmasking of violence that is ironically disrupting this trans-culturalism yet uniting the heteroglossic discourses by dominating this space. The space of Gunnarr and Högni’s hall and Heorot are both equally stained with the blood of the unjustly slaughtered victims: the murder of Gunnarr and Högni by Atli in the former case, and the murder Hrothgar’s men by Grendel’s mother in the latter case. Murder and bloodlust, the polarised ‘evil’ or ‘othered’ character(s) not only unite the literary space of these two tales but also unite the cultural space of the Danes and the Anglo-Saxons, through the metaphor of the ‘hall’. This is reinforced by the fact that the disruptive force of revenge in both cases takes place ‘outside’ the halls, ‘the area of unity’: in the former case, Guðrún does not burn Atli in the hall but kills him outside and buries him, and in the latter case, in the ‘den’ where Beowulf ventures to battle and kill the monster. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore how the othered discourse of violence actually assumes the central role and problematizes the narrative of dispositif heterotopia through the spatial metaphor of ‘hall’, a miniature cityscape, by acting as a both uniting and disrupting force.

MOTIVES OF “HUMILITY” AND “SPIRITUAL JOURNEY” IN THE ESSAY SERIES BY B.K. ZAITSEVA “ATHOS”

The article examines the interaction of the motives of “humility” and “spiritual journey” in the book by B.K. Zaitsev “Athos”. Their cycle-forming function is shown. The features of the artistic implementation of these motifs are revealed. The system of images used by the writer to represent the motives of “humility” and “spiritual journey” is reconstructed. It is proved that the poetics of these motifs is formed from many elements and includes impressionism in the depiction of pictures of nature, the use of symbols of Medieval literature, quoting lines from Holy Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers. The work also traces the genetic connection of the motifs of “humility” and “spiritual journeying” with the ancient genre of walking. Particular attention is paid to identifying the value guidelines that determine the philosophical concept of the cycle. It is concluded that the motifs under consideration are further developed in the essay cycle “Valaam” and the tetralogy “Gleb’s Journey”.

Absurdity in Medieval Literature? Der Stricker’s Pfaffe Amîs as a Transgressive Literary Enterprise Long before Modernity

Although the concept of the Absurd seems to be characteristic only of modernity, especially since WWII, we face the intriguing opportunity to investigate its likely first emergence in the early thirteenth century in Der Stricker’s Pfaffe Amîs (ca. 1220). While the narrative framework insinuates that meaning and relevance continue to be the key components of the priest’s life, especially because he constantly seeks new sources of income for his own generosity and hospitality, his various victims increasingly face absurd situations and are abandoned even to the threat of insanity and death. The analysis of the verse narrative suggests that the protagonist begins to embrace crime and violence as the norm for his operations as a fake merchant. Thus, in some of the episodes of this famous Schwankbuch, elements of the absurd become visible, creating considerable irritation and frustration, if not horror and desperation, among the priest’s innocent victims.

Cultural Concepts in the Turkish Translation of „The Knight in the Panther’s Skin“

The present work is a critical analysis of Shota Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin" translated into Turkish by Professor Bilal Dindar and Assistant Professor Zeinelabidin Makas. We will present comparison of the original and translated texts of "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin". "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin" is one of the remarkable monuments of medieval literature. "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin" is an epic work containing lyrical passages, the story of which takes place in Arabia and India. We often find cultural-specific concepts in the target language, the translator tries to adapt the lexical units in the original text to his own culture. These cultural concepts are: sun, moon, devil, wine drinking. We used the following methods during the research: Corpus Linguistic research method, which is relevant in modern humanitarian studies. The use of this method allows to quickly and efficiently process a large amount of empirical material, which simplifies the research process. We have also used method of linguoculturological analysis. Modern linguoculturology studies are of a comparative-contrastive nature, because the national specificity and universality of the concepts are particularly clearly revealed when comparing the materials of two or more languages. According to the linguocultural analysis, we will study the cultural concepts in two different cultural texts, which will help in the detailed description of the cultural concepts expressed in the linguistic process.

Lusophone, Portuguese, and Galician Studies: Portuguese Medieval Literature

Lusophone, Portuguese, and Galician Studies: Portuguese Medieval Literature

The Sinclair Women and Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Arch. Selden. B. 24

ABSTRACT This article develops the suggestions of previous commentators that Elizabeth, Jean, and Margaret Sinclair read Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Arch. Selden. B. 24 and/or oversaw its second scribe’s work. It does not advance new proofs in demonstration of these eventualities. Instead, it seeks to establish the place of the Sinclair women in the first audience of the codex and to explore the literary-critical implications of the book’s reception in their orbit. This approach facilitates fresh readings of the topic of advocacy in the second scribe’s texts—the Letter of Cupid, the Lay of Sorrow, the Lufaris Complaynt, and the Quare of Jelusy. Who, these poems seem to ask, can speak for women? The depiction of marriage in the Kingis Quair—for which the second scribe supplies a 140-line conclusion—is also considered. The argument closes with reflections on speculation, book history, and the interest of reception studies for readers of late medieval literature.

Revisiting the Crucifixion of Jesus within Islam

This article demonstrates that Muslim teachings on the historical crucifixion event of Jesus are by no means monolithic. While the Qur’ān’s reference to the crucifixion has typically been interpreted as fostering explicit rejection of the belief that Christ was crucified, its meaning on this issue constitutes neither denial nor affirmation of its historicity. Over time, discussion of the crucifixion within the Islamic tradition was formed to accommodate a rejection that obscured the neutrality of the original Qur’ānic position. One school of Islamic thought which affirmed the historicity of the crucifixion on a Qur’ānic basis is the tradition of Shi’a Isma’ili Islam. This article focuses on the conceptualisation of the crucifixion within Isma’ilism and its connection with Sunnism. From the Isma’ili perspective, the Qur’ān does not deny the crucifixion of Jesus; rather, it only denies that the People of the Book crucified him, in apparent response to their boasting. The ambiguity of Surah 4:157 remains a vigorous debate among classical and later Muslim scholars with references to the crucifixion as preserved in early and medieval literature furnishing distinctively divergent accounts of its unfolding. Even classical scholars such as al-Ghazali were persuaded by the views about the crucifixion expressed by leading Isma’ili thinkers such as Abu Ḥatim al-Razi (d. 934 CE) and Naṣir Khusraw (d. 1078 CE). Ultimately, the objective of this article is twofold: to demonstrate that the Qur’ān offers a neutral account of the crucifixion and to examine Shi’ite exegetical analysis on the crucifixion event in contrast to mainstream Islam.

Baldr, Ymir, and the Myth of the First Death in Old Norse Mythology (Part 1)

This study examines the myth of the death of the Norse god Baldr in a comparative framework. Scholars working in the fields of comparative mythology and religion have long argued that a myth concerning the sacrificial killing of the first man is represented in the ancient and medieval literatures of several languages in the Indo-European family. In the reconstruction of this myth, the first priest sacrifices his brother, whose corpse is integrated into the structure of the cosmos, and who rules the realm of the dead. It has long been argued that Ymir’s death and dismemberment and the use of his body to construct the world in Old Norse sources is a reflex of this myth; this study argues that the myth of the death of Baldr is also a cognate version of this myth. This article is the first part of a two-part study.

Women's Friendship in Medieval Literature

Women's Friendship in Medieval Literature

The Benedetti Fragment of the Archivio Comunale of Gemona del Friuli: Franco-Italian Cross-Pollination in Late Medieval Europe

Abstract: The aim of the article is to study a fragment of the Histoire Ancienne jusqu’ à César preserved in the municipal archives of Ge-mona del Friuli (Udine, Italy). In addition to the description of the fragment and its contents, this contribution reflects on the spread of Middle French in Italy by contextualizing the fragment of the Histoire within the complex phenomenon of relations between northeastern Italy and France. In particular, the presence of the fragment highlights the richness of Friuli in the context of medieval literature, despite the region’s peripheral place in European cultural circulation.

Женский этнотип в лирических песнях «Шицзина» (XI -VI вв. до н. э.) и в повествовательной прозе средневекового Китая

The aim of the study is to show that the prose works by the Tang dynasty writers reflected the new ethnotype of Chinese women, formed in the minds of the Chinese during this period. The study is original in that it is the first in Russian sinology to carry out a comparative analysis of female images in ancient and medieval Chinese literature. In the songs of the ancient Chinese poetic collection ‘Shijing’, the portrait included not only descriptions of women, but also a list of moral qualities and less often the behavior of the heroines, but did not touch upon their character traits. The authors of short stories of the Tang dynasty refuse to describe heroines’ appearance and expand the circle of female characters, adding celestials and foxes who take the form of a woman. The results have shown that in medieval literature, the description of a heroine’s appearance played an insignificant role and most often amounted to using the epithet ‘beauty’ without paying attention to the details adopted in archaic literature. The problem of the relationship between the descriptions of details in heroines’ portraits and their character traits and behavior is discussed. As a result, it has been proved that in the prose works under study, priority is given to the moral qualities of female characters, which indicates the influence of Confucian ideology on the authors during the period under consideration.

Muslim Women and the Politics of Representation (2002)*

This paper examines the politics of knowledge production as it relates to Muslim women in western literary traditions and contemporary feminist writing, with a view to understanding the political, ideological, and economic mediations that have historically framed these representations. The meta-narrative of the Muslim woman has shifted from the bold queens of medieval literature to colonial images of the seraglio’s veiled, secluded, and oppressed women. Contemporary feminist writing and popular culture have reproduced the colonial motifs of Muslim women, and these have regained currency in the aftermath of 9/11.Drawing upon the work of Mohja Kahf, this paper begins by mapping the evolution of the Muslim woman archetype in western literary traditions. The paper then examines how some contemporary feminist literature has reproduced in new ways the discursive tropes that have had historical currency in Muslim women’s textual representation. The analysis is attentive to the ways in which the cultural production of knowledge about Muslim women has been implicated historically by the relations of power between the Muslim world and the West. *This article was first published in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 19, no. 4 (2002): 1-22

Vietnamese lived religion, Confucianism and women: goddess spirituality in Nguyễn Dữ’s the young woman from Nam Xuong

Vietnam as a nation is deeply rooted in the wet-rice agricultural civilization, which is characterized by the Yin (female) principle and the religion worshiping Mother Goddess. However, Chinese Confucianism significantly influenced Vietnam throughout the feudal dynasties (10–19th centuries). Confucian kingship propagates symbols of virtuous women to establish the moral order of a male-dominated society. In contrast, by practicing lived religion and spreading folk narratives, Vietnamese people turn virtuous women into Mother Goddess with a liberal, creative and patronage identity. This study, thus, examines the position of women in Confucian Nguyễn Dữ’s The Young Woman from Nam Xuong, a canonical story reconstructed from legend. It is important to address the main concern about metaphors of a duality culture and a conflict discourse of Confucian politics and Vietnamese lived religion through the issue of Goddess spirituality. This article uses an interdisciplinary approach to demonstrate that resistance to Chinese Dominance and anti-Sinicization were significant issues of Vietnamese medieval literature and culture.

The intersection of medieval studies and Indigenous studies: A Norse-Saami case study

Medieval texts reveal the normalised presence of Saami peoples in medieval Fennoscandia, suggesting close interactions involving trade, relationships, rituals, and magic. Despite growing recognition of these relations, the Saami remain overlooked in general studies of the Middle Ages, often relegated to symbolic roles or footnotes. As a result, Saami characters are typically depicted as the exotic Other within Norse society, often being stripped of agency and humanity in historical narratives. To counter these biases and distorted narratives, an essential step is analysing exclusionary structures in medieval literature and critically reviewing existing research on Saami representation. This process challenges dehumanising portrayals and confronts present-day stereotypes. The present study aims to ‘re-humanize’ (as Paulette F. C. Steeves puts it) the medieval Saami past by using decolonising frameworks and perspectives offered by the so-called ‘Indigenous turn’ of medieval studies, bridging medieval studies and Indigenous studies within a Norse context.

Women’s Friendship in Medieval Literature. Ed. by Karma Lochrie and Usha Vishnuvajjala

<i>Women’s Friendship in Medieval Literature</i>. Ed. by Karma Lochrie and Usha Vishnuvajjala