Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance PDF Author: Curtis Perry
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
The phrase 'cultural materialism' names an approach to cultural analysis that interrogates the socio-economic conditions within which artefacts are produced as well as their participation in other ideological and material fields of culture. Disciplines that have traditionally studied cultural artefacts like literature and painting have increasingly focused on the material production and ideological operation of objects once thought of in idealized or purely aesthetic terms. By the same token, historians - whose work, of necessity, has always tended to deal with the material traces of culture - have increasingly been willing to consider the social and ideological importance of art. The increasing popularity of this cultural studies approach to the past has in turn spurred investigation into other kinds of materiality. Recent historical and literary scholarship, for example, has become increasingly aware of the ways in which the lived materiality of the human body informs a range of cultural discourses.

Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance PDF Author: Curtis Perry
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book

Book Description
The phrase 'cultural materialism' names an approach to cultural analysis that interrogates the socio-economic conditions within which artefacts are produced as well as their participation in other ideological and material fields of culture. Disciplines that have traditionally studied cultural artefacts like literature and painting have increasingly focused on the material production and ideological operation of objects once thought of in idealized or purely aesthetic terms. By the same token, historians - whose work, of necessity, has always tended to deal with the material traces of culture - have increasingly been willing to consider the social and ideological importance of art. The increasing popularity of this cultural studies approach to the past has in turn spurred investigation into other kinds of materiality. Recent historical and literary scholarship, for example, has become increasingly aware of the ways in which the lived materiality of the human body informs a range of cultural discourses.

History and Material Culture

History and Material Culture PDF Author: Karen Harvey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135690952
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Sources are the raw material of history, but where the written word has traditionally been seen as the principal source, today historians are increasingly recognizing the value of sources beyond text. In History and Material Culture, Karen Harvey embarks upon a discussion about material culture – considering objects, often those found surrounding us in day to day life, as sources, which can help historians develop new interpretations and new knowledge about the past. Across ten chapters, different historians look at a variety of material sources from around the globe and across centuries to assess how such sources can be used to study history. While the sources are discussed from ‘interdisciplinary’ perspectives, each contributor examines how material culture can be approached from an historical viewpoint, and each chapter addresses its theme or approach in a way accessible to readers without expertise in the area. In her introduction, Karen Harvey discusses some of the key issues raised when historians use material culture, and suggests some basic steps for those new to these kinds of sources. Opening up the discipline of history to new approaches, and introducing those working in other disciplines to historical approaches, this book is the ideal introduction to the opportunities and challenges of researching material culture.

Handbook of Medieval Studies

Handbook of Medieval Studies PDF Author: Albrecht Classen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110215586
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 2822

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Book Description
This interdisciplinary handbook provides extensive information about research in medieval studies and its most important results over the last decades. The handbook is a reference work which enables the readers to quickly and purposely gain insight into the important research discussions and to inform themselves about the current status of research in the field. The handbook consists of four parts. The first, large section offers articles on all of the main disciplines and discussions of the field. The second section presents articles on the key concepts of modern medieval studies and the debates therein. The third section is a lexicon of the most important text genres of the Middle Ages. The fourth section provides an international bio-bibliographical lexicon of the most prominent medievalists in all disciplines. A comprehensive bibliography rounds off the compendium. The result is a reference work which exhaustively documents the current status of research in medieval studies and brings the disciplines and experts of the field together.

A New Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture

A New Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture PDF Author: Michael Hattaway
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 140518762X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1267

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Book Description
In this revised and greatly expanded edition of the Companion, 80 scholars come together to offer an original and far-reaching assessment of English Renaissance literature and culture. A new edition of the best-selling Companion to English Renaissance Literature, revised and updated, with 22 new essays and 19 new illustrations Contributions from some 80 scholars including Judith H. Anderson, Patrick Collinson, Alison Findlay, Germaine Greer, Malcolm Jones, Arthur Kinney, James Knowles, Arthur Marotti, Robert Miola and Greg Walker Unrivalled in scope and its exploration of unfamiliar literary and cultural territories the Companion offers new readings of both ‘literary’ and ‘non-literary’ texts Features essays discussing material culture, sectarian writing, the history of the body, theatre both in and outside the playhouses, law, gardens, and ecology in early modern England Orientates the beginning student, while providing advanced students and faculty with new directions for their research All of the essays from the first edition, along with the recommendations for further reading, have been reworked or updated

Sin and Filth in Medieval Culture

Sin and Filth in Medieval Culture PDF Author: Martha Bayless
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136490833
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
This important new contribution to the history of the body analyzes the role of filth as the material counterpart of sin in medieval thought. Using a wide range of texts, including theology, historical documents, and literature from Augustine to Chaucer, the book shows how filth was regarded as fundamental to an understanding of human history. This theological significance explains the prominence of filth and dung in all genres of medieval writing: there is more dung in theology than there is in Chaucer. The author also demonstrates the ways in which the religious understanding of filth and sin influenced the secular world, from town planning to the execution of traitors. As part of this investigation the book looks at the symbolic order of the body and the ways in which the different aspects of the body were assigned moral meanings. The book also lays out the realities of medieval sanitation, providing the first comprehensive view of real-life attempts to cope with filth. This book will be essential reading for those interested in medieval religious thought, literature, amd social history. Filled with a wealth of entertaining examples, it will also appeal to those who simply want to glimpse the medieval world as it really was.

Living by the Sword

Living by the Sword PDF Author: Kristen Brooke Neuschel
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501752138
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
Sharpen your knowledge of swords with Kristen B. Neuschel as she takes you through a captivating 1,000 years of French and English history. Living by the Sword reveals that warrior culture, with the sword as its ultimate symbol, was deeply rooted in ritual long before the introduction of gunpowder weapons transformed the battlefield. Neuschel argues that objects have agency and that decoding their meaning involves seeing them in motion: bought, sold, exchanged, refurbished, written about, displayed, and used in ceremony. Drawing on evidence about swords (from wills, inventories, records of armories, and treasuries) in the possession of nobles and royalty, she explores the meanings people attached to them from the contexts in which they appeared. These environments included other prestige goods such as tapestries, jewels, and tableware—all used to construct and display status. Living by the Sword draws on an exciting diversity of sources from archaeology, military and social history, literature, and material culture studies to inspire students and educated lay readers (including collectors and reenactors) to stretch the boundaries of what they know as the "war and culture" genre.

Medieval Romance and Material Culture

Medieval Romance and Material Culture PDF Author: Nicholas Perkins
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 1843843900
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Studies of how the physical manifests itself in medieval romance - and medieval romances as objects themselves.

Handbook of Medieval Culture

Handbook of Medieval Culture PDF Author: Albrecht Classen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110377616
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 747

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Book Description
A follow-up publication to the Handbook of Medieval Studies, this new reference work turns to a different focus: medieval culture. Medieval research has grown tremendously in depth and breadth over the last decades. Particularly our understanding of medieval culture, of the basic living conditions, and the specific value system prevalent at that time has considerably expanded, to a point where we are in danger of no longer seeing the proverbial forest for the trees. The present, innovative handbook offers compact articles on essential topics, ideals, specific knowledge, and concepts defining the medieval world as comprehensively as possible. The topics covered in this new handbook pertain to issues such as love and marriage, belief in God, hell, and the devil, education, lordship and servitude, Christianity versus Judaism and Islam, health, medicine, the rural world, the rise of the urban class, travel, roads and bridges, entertainment, games, and sport activities, numbers, measuring, the education system, the papacy, saints, the senses, death, and money.

The Prose Brut and Other Late Medieval Chronicles

The Prose Brut and Other Late Medieval Chronicles PDF Author: Jaclyn Rajsic
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1903153662
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Essays on the medieval chronicle tradition, shedding light on history writing, manuscript studies and the history of the book, and the post-medieval reception of such texts.

Allegory, Space and the Material World in the Writings of Edmund Spenser

Allegory, Space and the Material World in the Writings of Edmund Spenser PDF Author: Christopher Burlinson
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 9781843840787
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
An examination of the way in which the material world is depicted in The Faerie Queene. This book provides a radical reassessment of Spenserian allegory, in particular of The Faerie Queene, in the light of contemporary historical and theoretical interests in space and material culture. It explores the ambiguous and fluctuating attention to materiality, objects, and substance in the poetics of The Faerie Queene, and discusses the way that Spenser's creation of allegorical meaning makes use of this materiality, and transforms it.It suggests further that a critical engagement with materiality (which has been so important to the recent study of early modern drama) must come, in the case of allegorical narrative, through a study of narrative and physical space, and in this context it goes on to provide a reading of the spatial dimensions of the poem - quests and battles, forests, castles and hovels - and the spatial characteristics of Spenser's other writings. The book reaffirms theneed to place Spenser in his historical contexts - philosophical and scientific, military and architectural - in early modern England, Ireland and Europe, but also provides a critical reassessment of this literary historicism. Dr CHRISTOPHER BURLINSON is a Research Fellow in English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.