Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 191-200
Author(s):  
Jacqueline de Romilly
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
The Middle Ages

This concluding chapter discusses how the story of Alcibiades' life requires consulting both historical and literary texts. The honors bestowed on his tomb by the emperor Hadrian have served as the epilogue of Alcibiades' death. This is not surprising since Hadrian was known to be an admirer of Greek culture. Nor is it surprising that cultivated Romans knew about Alcibiades. They read Plato, the Greek historians, and later Plutarch. And in addition to the biography written by Cornelius Nepos, one encounters Alcibiades in all the scholars of the imperial age. After that, a heavy veil of silence fell. There is no mention of Alcibiades through the Middle Ages until the reappearance of Greek texts. The chapter then offers an analogy between Alcibiades' life and the unification of Europe. When one looks back at his life, the crisis in democracy is what is most striking and moving today.

Allegra Iafrate, The Long Life of Magical Objects: A Study in the Solomonic Tradition. The Magic in History Series. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019, xi, 235 pp., 19 b/w images, 2 tables.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 252-254
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Modern World ◽  
State University ◽  
Eastern Culture ◽  
Historical Objects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Objects ◽  
The Middle Ages

Throughout times, magic and magicians have exerted a tremendous influence, and this even in our (post)modern world (see now the contributions to Magic and Magicians in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Time, ed. Albrecht Classen, 2017; here not mentioned). Allegra Iafrate here presents a fourth monograph dedicated to magical objects, primarily those associated with the biblical King Solomon, especially the ring, the bottle which holds a demon, knots, and the flying carpet. She is especially interested in the reception history of those symbolic objects, both in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, both in western and in eastern culture, that is, above all, in the Arabic world, and also pursues the afterlife of those objects in the early modern age. Iafrate pursues not only the actual history of King Solomon and those religious objects associated with him, but the metaphorical objects as they made their presence felt throughout time, and this especially in literary texts and in art-historical objects.

Aspetti della subordinazione completiva nel De consolatione philosophiae di Boezio*

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 133-144
Author(s):  
Valentina Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Consistent Pattern ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Functional Characteristics ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Constituent Order ◽  
The Middle Ages

Summary:This paper aims at describing some of the main structural and functional characteristics of completive clauses governed by verba dicendi et sentiendi in Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae. The characteristics of the use of the Accusativus cum Infinitivo (AcI) will be analysed in comparison with the uses of other Latin authors. The data will be described on the basis of two main aspects: constituent order, and the coreferentiality of the subject of the AcI with elements in the main clause. Compared to the predominance of AcI constructions, quod-clauses show a consistent pattern and are limited to well- defined contexts. Some aspects of the use of quin and ut will also be described. Special attention will be given to the problems of syntactic and semantic interpretation of the governing verbs, which can be difficult to define clearly. This study will also set the ground for further research on the influence of Boethius's Latin model on Italo-Romance literary texts in the Middle Ages, both on the syntactic and the stilistic level.

scholarly journals Defining and Defending the Middle Ages with C. S. Lewis

Humanities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Murdoch
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
Technical Skills ◽  
Courtly Love ◽  
The Self ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Love Song ◽  
Universal Values ◽  
Love Lyric ◽  
The Middle Ages

The scholarly writings of C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) have both inspired the study of the Middle Ages and confirmed the relevance to the humanities that medieval literary texts can have for the present. He was aware that the straitjacket implied by periodisation can blind us to the universal values presented in medieval literature. Qualitative assumptions made about the (usually undefined) Middle Ages include an alienating remoteness, and also a general ignorance, especially of science and technology. Lewis drew attention to the knowledge of astronomy, for example, and pointed out that medieval technical skills in architecture, agriculture and medicine are important for us to be aware about. Three medieval works illustrate this universality with respect to technical skills (the Völundarkviða); identity and the self (the Hildebrandslied); and the popular love-song (the courtly love-lyric). Lewis cautioned against pejorative terms like ‘Dark Ages’, noted problems of perspective in assessing all pre-modern literature, and showed that earlier works have a continuing value and relevance.

Outside the Law in the Middle Ages

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-54
Author(s):  
Conor McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
Sovereign Authority ◽  
English Law ◽  
Legal Sense ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter begins by looking at what outlawry means in a legal sense in medieval England, drawing comparisons between the characterisation of the outlaw as an excluded figure and Agamben's portrayal of the homo sacer. The representation of the outlaw in the literature of the period, however, gives us a very different picture, akin to Hobsbawm's 'social bandit.' Different again from these representations in both legal and literary texts are the actions of the real outlaw gangs of medieval England, whose behaviour is perhaps more complex than either Agamben or Hobsbawm's archetypal constructions may allow for. Following this discussion of the outlaw in legal, literary, and historical texts, this chapter proceeds to highlight three phenomena. Firstly, it notes the extent of additional forms of exclusion from law within the 'palimpsest of jurisdictions' found in later medieval England. Secondly, it discusses outlawry and its literature as a location where tensions around sovereign authority may be examined. Finally, it considers the use of exclusion from or inclusion within English law as a tactic linked to territorial expansion in later medieval Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and the application of outlawry to the English state’s archipelagic opponents, such as Robert Bruce and William Wallace.

scholarly journals Ahmadi Khani's epic "Mam u Zin" based on Epic Characteristics

Twejer ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-244
Author(s):  
Ebrahim Mohammed Ebrahim ◽  
◽  
Sirwan Jabar Amin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Global Model ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Special Place ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Middle Ages

Epic is one of the oldest genres in many nations' literature and has occupied an excellent area of world literature. From birth to the middle ages, one of the first genres of literature of many nations It was epic that became the primary genre of the era from Sumerians to Greeks and Romans, and later in the middle centuries. This genre has its specific characteristics and principles that have become the genre's identity for all of the texts under this genre. These characteristics have created the basis for similarities and differences for the literary texts placed under this literary genre. Epic has occupied a special place and states in the literature of the Kurdish nation. Although the Kurdish sample of epic was not like the global model, it still possesses many global epic criteria and assumptions. From this perspective, this research attempts to show how Ahmadi Khani's epic "Mam u Zin" is committed to the characteristics and principles of this genre. In this context, an explanation and analysis have been made for the epic

scholarly journals The Crusades in the Arab Discourse on Palestine (1917-1948): cultural aspect

2020 ◽  
pp. 52-59
Author(s):  
Oleg Sokolov
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Modern Literature ◽  
Arab Culture ◽  
Cultural Aspect ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Issue Analysis ◽  
The Middle Ages

In the late XX – early XXI century, the Arab discourse on the issue of Palestine remains saturated with references to the Crusades (1099-1291), and likening the current tribulation of the history of Palestine to the medieval events. Modern historiography traces the growth in popularity of such reminiscences beginning from 1948, while modern literature practically has no mentions of the used of the “anti-Crusades rhetoric” by the Arab cultural figures prior to this data. The object of this research is the mobilization of historical memory in Arab culture of the first half of the XX century; the subject is reference to the topic of the Crusades in the Arab literary texts of 1917-1948 dedicated to the Palestinian issue. Analysis of literary works of the Arab cultural figures of the early XX century demonstrated that way before Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949, such events as Balfour Declaration (1917) and Arab revolt (1936-1938) were being actively compared by the Arab poets and dramaturgists to the era of the Crusades. In the period from 1917 to 1948, the author highlights the following types of references of the Arab cultural figured to the era of the Crusades in relation to the Palestine issue: blaming of Europe for conducting a new Crusade, manifestations of which were declared the activity of the mandate administrations and arrival of the Jewish settlers; reminding of failure of the Crusades, which should have served as the warning for the modern Europeans; revival of heroic memory of the Palestinians in confrontation of the European crusaders in the Middle Ages, which should have inspire the contemporaries to fight for their land.

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