Kategoria BISAC: Philosophy >> History & Surveys - Medieval

Hybridity in the Literature of Medieval England offers a wide-ranging exploration of hybridity in medieval English literature. Anxiety about hybridity surfaces in characters of mixed ethnic identity in the romances. But anxiety is found also in the intersection of the natural and the supernatural and its site can be located inside the human body’s unstable physical frame, living and dead, as much as in the cultural and social forces at work upon the human body politic at large. Hybridity is unlike other constructs of difference in that, while it is grounded in...

This two-volume work examines far-reaching debates on the concept of courage from Greek antiquity to the Christian and mediaeval periods, as well as the modern era. Volume 1 begins with Homeric poetry and the politics of fearless demi-gods thriving on war. The tales of lion-hearted Heracles, Achilles, and Ulysses, and their tragic fall at the hands of fate, eventually give way to classical views of courage based on competing theories of rational wisdom and truth. Fears of the enemy and anxieties about suffering and death are addressed through the lenses and teachings of medicine,...

May you laugh in church? The church fathers said 'no', but the question resurfaced thanks to a German custom of making the congregation laugh on Easter morning. In 1518, Oecolampadius wrote a book in which Easter Laughter is described for the first time. Until now, his Latin text has never been translated. This study provides a historical account of Easter Laughter in the Early Modern period, traces the controversy it sparked between Catholics and Protestants in the following centuries, and offers some explanations for why a provincial custom has sparked global interest since the...