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Machines of the Mind
Personification in Medieval Literature
Sprache:
Englisch
Veröffentlicht/Copyright:
2021
Über dieses Buch
In Machines of the Mind, Katharine Breen proposes that medieval personifications should be understood neither as failed novelistic characters nor as instruments of heavy-handed didacticism. She argues that personifications are instead powerful tools for thought that help us to remember and manipulate complex ideas, testing them against existing moral and political paradigms. Specifically, different types of medieval personification should be seen as corresponding to positions in the rich and nuanced medieval debate over universals. Breen identifies three different types of personification—Platonic, Aristotelian, and Prudentian—that gave medieval writers a surprisingly varied spectrum with which to paint their characters.
Through a series of new readings of major authors and works, from Plato to Piers Plowman, Breen illuminates how medieval personifications embody the full range of positions between philosophical realism and nominalism, varying according to the convictions of individual authors and the purposes of individual works. Recalling Gregory the Great’s reference to machinae mentis (machines of the mind), Breen demonstrates that medieval writers applied personification with utility and subtlety, employing methods of personification as tools that serve different functions. Machines of the Mind offers insight for medievalists working at the crossroads of religion, philosophy, and literature, as well as for scholars interested in literary character-building and gendered relationships among characters, readers, and texts beyond the Middle Ages.
Information zu Autoren / Herausgebern
Katharine Breen is associate professor of English at Northwestern University. She is the author of Imagining an English Reading Public, 1150-1400, and her essays and articles have appeared in such publications as Representations, Journal of Church History, Chaucer Review, Review of English Studies, Speculum, and New Medieval Literatures, among others. She is a coeditor of the Yearbook of Langland Studies.
Rezensionen
“Machines of the Mind persuades its readers to think more systematically about the types and uses of personification. Breen clears away some forty years of confusion about medieval philosophical positions on realism and so-called nominalism, clearly differentiating them from the postmodern nominalism of twentieth-century high theory and imaginatively reconsidering their implications for literary representation. Her schema will allow future scholars to differentiate Platonic, Neoplatonic, moderate realist, and nominalist strategies for personification while also recognizing that many medieval works may employ multiple types at once. This book will remain a reference point for many years to come.”
— Fiona Somerset, author of Feeling like Saints: Lollard Writings after Wyclif"Machines of the Mind is one of the most thorough and insightful texts on personification available. . . . Breen is a meticulous writer, and the book is successful in its aims. Taking on a large wealth of information and literature in stride, Breen writes out a detailed history. . . . Audiences who have a critical background in personification will find this book to be invaluable to their studies."
— Comitatus" Breen’s Machines of the Mind traces the formal and historical development of three traditions of personification that, as she argues throughout the book, are available to medieval authors: Prudentian, Platonic, and Aristotelian. She describes how each type of personification functions as a pliable and complex 'engine of thought' that allows writers and readers to think through difficult questions."
— Qui Parle"Machines of the Mind: Personification in Medieval Literature is a powerful and original intervention in medieval allegory studies and, more broadly, literary history and theory. This is a book that will reshape our thinking about the interaction between poetics and philosophy in antiquity and the Middle Ages."
— Rita Copeland, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies"Machines of the Mind more than succeeds in its goals of creating a much needed taxonomy of personification that also redefines it as a spur to cognition, personal reform, and political reflection."
— Studies in the Age of ChaucerFachgebiete
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
v -
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Acknowledgments
vii -
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Introduction
1 - Part I: Prudentian Personification
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1. Consecratus Manu: Men Forming Gods Forming Men
35 -
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2. How to Fight like a Girl: Christianizing Personification in the Psychomachia
69 - Part II: Neoplatonic Personification
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3. Ex Uno Omnia: Plato’s Forms and Daemons
111 -
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4. Hello, Nurse! The Boethian Daemon
150 - Part III: Aristotelian Personification
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5. E Pluribus Unum: Abstracting Universals from Particulars
203 -
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6. Dreaming of Aristotle in the Songe d’Enfer and Winner and Waster
234 -
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7. A Good Body Is Hard to Find: Putting Personification through Its Paces in Piers Plowman
274 -
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Notes
317 -
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Index
357
Informationen zur Veröffentlichung
Seiten und Bilder/Illustrationen im Buch
eBook veröffentlicht am:
30. April 2021
eBook ISBN:
9780226776620
Seiten und Bilder/Illustrationen im Buch
eBook ISBN:
9780226776620
Schlagwörter für dieses Buch
personification; literature; medieval; ancient; historical; history; time period; novel; characters; analysis; english major; political; moral; ethical; ethics; philosophy; philosophical; universal; class; wealth; rich people; piers plowman; famous books; plato; realism; nominalism; gregory the great; debate; religion; religious studies; machinae mentis; consecratus manu; god; faith; belief; middle ages; aristotle; textbook; academic; scholarly
Zielgruppe(n) für dieses Buch
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
