Description
Taylor & Francis Polemic Language as Violence in Medieval and Early Modern Discourse 2015 Edition by Almut Suerbaum, George Southcombe
If terms are associated with particular historical periods, then 'polemic' is firmly rooted within early modern print culture, the apparently inevitable result of religious controversy and the rise of print media. Taking a broad European approach, this collection brings together specialists on medieval as well as early modern culture in order to challenge stubborn assumptions that medieval culture was homogenous and characterized by consensus; and that literary discourse is by nature 'eirenic'. Instead, the volume shows more clearly the continuities and discontinuities, especially how medieval discourse on the sins of the tongue continued into early modern discussion; how popular and influential medieval genres such as sermons and hagiography dealt with potentially heterodox positions; and the role of literary, especially fictional, debate in developing modes of articulating discord, as well as demonstrating polemic in action in political and ecclesiastical debate. Within this historical context, the position of early modern debates as part of a more general culture of articulating discord becomes more clearly visible. The structure of the volume moves from an internal textual focus, where the nature of polemic can be debated, through a middle section where these concerns are also played out in social practice, to a more historical group investigating applied polemic. In this way a more nuanced view is provided of the meaning, role, and effect of 'polemic' both broadly across time and space, and more narrowly within specific circumstances. Table of contents :- Contents: Introduction, George Southcombe, Almut Suerbaum and Benjamin Thompson. Part I Textual Strategies: Rhetoric Between Invective and Lament: Between autobiography and apocalypse: the double subject of polemic in Petrarch's Liber sine nomine and Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, Francesca Southerden; The ends of polemic and the beginning of Lohengrin, Alastair Matthews; Feeling the polemic of an early motet, Sean Curran; 'Why do you concern yourself with these words?' Rhetoric and polemic in medieval Castilian female saints' lives, Emma Gatland. Part II Social Practice: Articulation of Dissent and Normative Practice: Dissing the teacher: classroom polemics in the early and high Middle Ages, Monika Otter; Language of violence: language as violence in vernacular sermons, Almut Suerbaum; Psalms as polemic: the English bible debate, Annie Sutherland; Maximos the Greek: imprisoned in polemic, C.M. MacRobert. Part III Historical Narratives: Reformation, Renovation, Restoration: The polemic of reform in the later medieval English Church, Benjamin Thompson; Lamenting the Church? Bishop Andrzej Krzycki and early Reformation polemic, Natalia Nowakowska; The polemics of moderation in late 17th-century England, George Southcombe. Bibliography; Index.