Making Difference in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia

by Jean Dangler

Overview

In this engaging study Jean Dangler examines the way that ideas of difference were forged in four types of medieval Iberian discourse: muwashshah/jarcha poems from al-Andalus, Andalusi "cutting poems," medical literature about the body, and portrayals of the monster. According to Dangler, these texts demonstrate the two fundamental precepts of medieval Iberian alterity: multifaceted subject formation and the embrace of contrasts and the negative.

Medieval Iberia was a multicultural territory of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian societies. These communities had constant geographic, cultural, political, and economic contact with one another. Because medieval Iberia was not hierarchical and homogenous, medieval subjectivity was not always marked by essential qualities of character, but was mutable and shifting. The adverse was often esteemed in the making of meaning and the forging of the social order. Dangler explores how the four discourses she analyzes changed in the early modern period, from an acceptance of difference to more rigid concepts of subjectivity and the marginalization of difference. This shift accompanied the rise of the Castilian nation-state and its imposition of static hierarchies of value.

This book will appeal to a broad range of medievalists. It makes an important contribution to the growing interest in medieval Iberia and offers a nuanced understanding of medieval history and culture in general.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268025755
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	11/29/2005
Edition description:	1
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jean Dangler is a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Tulane University

Editorial Reviews

Dangler looks at the forces that define and control alterity in four sets of discourses: muwashsha/jarcha poetry of al-Andalus, lace-like Andalusi ‘cutting poems’ (cartas de Tijeras), medical treatises concerning the body, and representations of monsters. Relating the development of the medieval models to changing perceptions of the Otherness and to the cultural values that both inform and derive from them, the author argues that medieval society did not depend on the hierarchies and acts of denigration that came to characterize the early modern mindset…Highly recommended.” —Choice

Choice

“Dangler looks at the forces that define and control alterity in four sets of discourses: muwashsha/jarcha poetry of al-Andalus, lace-like Andalusi ‘cutting poems’ (cartas de Tijeras), medical treatises concerning the body, and representations of monsters. Relating the development of the medieval models to changing perceptions of the Otherness and to the cultural values that both inform and derive from them, the author argues that medieval society did not depend on the hierarchies and acts of denigration that came to characterize the early modern mindset…Highly recommended.” —Choice, May 2006

“Jean Dangler has attempted to enlighten the reader to a further understanding of medieval Iberia's 'Golden Age' of toleration and how that era evolved into one of intolerance . . . Dangler's elucidation and scholarship are unquestionable.” —The Historian, vol. 69, no. 3

“Jean Dangler… examines ways in which ideas of difference were forged in four types of Iberian discourse: jarchas poems from Al-Andalus, Andalusí cutting poems, medical literature about the body, and discourses about monsters… Her enthralling analysis of these four discourses examines early modern transformations that illustrate shifts in the perceptions of alterity and in prevailing cultural values.” —This Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies, 68, 2006, 2008

From the Publisher