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By examining different readings of specific illnesses, this study shows how the social construction of epidemic diseases formed a kind of narrative wherein man attempts to take the control of the disease out of God's hands by connecting epidemic diseases to the sins of carnality.

This text foregrounds the vexed role of the body in both late medieval and early modern religiosity, and the ways in which the boundaries of the endangered body in these narratives also reflect the rigorously defended borders of the body politic.

This volume examines the method of meditative reading encouraged by John Cassian (c. 360-435) in his ascetic writings, the bulk of which are fictive dialogues that purportedly record the instruction he had received from Egyptian Christian monks.

By critically and carefully combining traditional philology with modern theoretical analysis, this study provides a much needed re-evaluation of the role of pain and suffering in Hartmann von Aue.

The first comprehensive study of the classical legend of Thebes in the Middle Ages.

Tells the story of Johannes Kepler's "Somnium", a narrative referred to as the first science-fiction story. This title explores the generic qualities of the fabulous narrative as well as the dream categories formulated by Macrobius and Artemidorus.

This book deals with medieval literary criticism of the Bible; it centers on the paradoxical interdependence of the literal and spiritual senses through examination of Nicholas of Lyra's literal commentary.

Focusing on the mystical writings of Bernard of Clairvaux and Hadewijch of Brabant, this work shows how each exploits the language of taste and touch to articulate the possibility of the mystical experience, the union with God.

Presenting an eclectic account and drawing upon a variety of sources, this book situates 14th-century literature within the visual culture of the later Middle Ages to re-invigorate our critical approach to art and literature of this period.

The rise and establishment of the theological authority of Thomas Aquinas, something that ran counter to every current running through the late thirteenth-century Church is investigated in this work.

This book explores the historical and imaginary representation of the Saracen, or Muslim, in French writings from 1100 to 1500. Literary relationships between Christians and Muslims are placed side-by-side with historical accounts of changing socio-political interactions.