Table Of Content

THE NEW MIDDLE AGES BONNIE WHEELER, Series Editor The New Middle Ages is a series dedicated to transdisciplinary studies of medieval cultures, with p articular emphasis on recuperating women’s history and on feminist and gender analyses. This p eer-reviewed series includes both scholarly monographs and essay collections. PUBLISHED BY PALGRAVE: Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Chaucer’s Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies Patronage, and Piety of Discourse edited by Gavin R. G. Hambly by Robert S. Sturges The Ethics of Nature in the Middle Ages: On Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays on Boccaccio’s Poetaphysics Medieval European and Heian Japanese Women by Gregory B. Stone Writers edited by Barbara Stevenson and Presence and Presentation: Women in the Cynthia Ho Chinese Literati Tradition by Sherry J. Mou Engaging Words: The Culture of Reading in the Later Middle Ages The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: by Laurel Amtower Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France Robes and Honor: The Medieval World of by Constant J. Mews Investiture edited by Stewart Gordon Understanding Scholastic Thought with Foucault Representing Rape in Medieval and Early by Philipp W. Rosemann Modern Literature edited by Elizabeth Robertson and For Her Good Estate: The Life of Elizabeth de Christine M. Rose Burgh by Frances A. Underhill Same Sex Love and Desire among Women in the Middle Ages Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in edited by Francesca Canadé Sautman and the Middle Ages Pamela Sheingorn edited by Cindy L. Carlson and Angela Jane Weisl Sight and Embodiment in the Middle Ages: Ocular Desires Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon by Suzannah Biernoff England by Mary Dockray-Miller Listen, Daughter: The Speculum Virginum and the Formation of Religious Women in the Listening to Heloise: The Voice of a Twelfth- Middle Ages Century Woman edited by Constant J. Mews edited by Bonnie Wheeler Science, the Singular, and the Question of The Postcolonial Middle Ages Theology edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen by Richard A. Lee, Jr. Gender in Debate from the Early Middle Ages The Persistence of Medievalism: Narrative to the Renaissance Adventures in Contemporary Culture edited by Thelma S. Fenster and by Angela Jane Weisl Clare A. Lees Capetian Women Malory’s Morte D’Arthur: Remaking edited by Kathleen D. Nolan Arthurian Tradition Joan of Arc and Spirituality by Catherine Batt edited by Ann W. Astell and Bonnie The Vernacular Spirit: Essays on Medieval Wheeler Religious Literature The Texture of Society: Medieval Women in the edited by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Southern Low Countries Duncan Robertson, and Nancy Warren edited by Ellen E. Kittell and Mary A. Suydam Popular Piety and Art in the Late Middle Ages: Image Worship and Idolatry in England 1350– Charlemagne’s Mustache: And Other Cultural 1500 Clusters of a Dark Age by Kathleen Kamerick by Paul Edward Dutton Absent Narratives, Manuscript Textuality, and Troubled Vision: Gender, Sexuality, and Sight in Literary Structure in Late Medieval England Medieval Text and Image by Elizabeth Scala edited by Emma Campbell and Robert Mills Creating Community with Food and Drink in Merovingian Gaul Queering Medieval Genres by Bonnie Effros by Tison Pugh Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses: Sacred Place in Early Medieval Neoplatonism Image and Empire by L. Michael Harrington by Anne McClanan The Middle Ages at Work Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: edited by Kellie Robertson and Michael Objects, Texts, Images Uebel edited by Désirée G. Koslin and Janet Chaucer’s Jobs Snyder by David R. Carlson Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady Medievalism and Orientalism: Three Essays edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John on Literature, Architecture and Cultural Carmi Parsons Identity Isabel La Católica, Queen of Castile: Critical by John M. Ganim Essays Queer Love in the Middle Ages edited by David A. Boruchoff by Anna Klosowska Homoeroticism and Chivalry: Discourses Performing Women in the Middle Ages: Sex, of Male Same-Sex Desire in the Gender, and the Iberian Lyric Fourteenth Century by Denise K. Filios by Richard E. Zeikowitz Necessary Conjunctions: The Social Self in Portraits of Medieval Women: Family, Marriage, Medieval England and Politics in England 1225–1350 by David Gary Shaw by Linda E. Mitchell Visual Culture and the German Middle Ages Eloquent Virgins: From Thecla to Joan of Arc edited by Kathryn Starkey and Horst by Maud Burnett McInerney Wenzel Medieval Paradigms: Essays in Honor of Jeremy Performing Piety: Musical Culture in Medieval duQuesnay Adams, Volumes 1 and 2 English Nunneries edited by Stephanie Hayes-Healy by Anne Bagnell Yardley False Fables and Exemplary Truth in Later The Flight from Desire: Augustine and Ovid to Middle English Literature Chaucer by Elizabeth Allen by Robert R. Edwards Ecstatic Transformation: On the Uses of Alterity Mindful Spirit in Late Medieval Literature: in the Middle Ages Essays in Honor of Elizabeth D. Kirk by Michael Uebel edited by Bonnie Wheeler Sacred and Secular in Medieval and Early Medieval Fabrications: Dress, Textiles, Modern Cultures: New Essays Clothwork, and Other Cultural Imaginings edited by Lawrence Besserman edited by E. Jane Burns Tolkien’s Modern Middle Ages Was the Bayeux Tapestry Made in France?: The edited by Jane Chance and Alfred K. Case for St. Florent of Saumur Siewers by George Beech Representing Righteous Heathens in Late Women, Power, and Religious Patronage in the Medieval England Middle Ages by Frank Grady by Erin L. Jordan Byzantine Dress: Representations of Secular Hybridity, Identity, and Monstrosity in Medieval Dress in Eighth-to-Twelfth Century Painting Britain: On Difficult Middles by Jennifer L. Ball by Jeremy Jerome Cohen The Laborer’s Two Bodies: Labor and the Medieval Go-betweens and Chaucer’s Pandarus “Work” of the Text in Medieval Britain, by Gretchen Mieszkowski 1350–1500 The Surgeon in Medieval English Literature by Kellie Robertson by Jeremy J. Citrome The Dogaressa of Venice, 1250–1500: Wife Temporal Circumstances: Form and History in and Icon the Canterbury Tales by Holly S. Hurlburt by Lee Patterson Logic, Theology, and Poetry in Boethius, Abelard, Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious and Alan of Lille: Words in the Absence of Things Writing by Eileen C. Sweeney by Lara Farina The Theology of Work: Peter Damian and the Medieval Religious Renewal Movement Odd Bodies and Visible Ends in Medieval by Patricia Ranft Literature by Sachi Shimomura On the Purification of Women: Churching in Northern France, 1100–1500 On Farting: Language and Laughter in the by Paula M. Rieder Middle Ages by Valerie Allen Writers of the Reign of Henry II: Twelve Essays edited by Ruth Kennedy and Women and Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and Simon Meecham-Jones the Limits of Epic Masculinity edited by Sara S. Poor and Jana K. Lonesome Words: The Vocal Poetics of the Old Schulman English Lament and the African-American Blues Song Race, Class, and Gender in “Medieval” Cinema by M.G. McGeachy edited by Lynn T. Ramey and Tison Pugh Allegory and Sexual Ethics in the High Manmade Marvels in Medieval Culture and Middle Ages Literature by Noah D. Guynn by Scott Lightsey England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, 12th- American Chaucers 15th Century: Cultural, Literary, and Political by Candace Barrington Exchanges edited by María Bullón-Fernández Representing Others in Medieval Iberian Literature The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making by Michelle M. Hamilton Process by Albrecht Classen Paradigms and Methods in Early Medieval Claustrophilia: The Erotics of Enclosure in Studies Medieval Literature Edited by Celia Chazelle and Felice by Cary Howie Lifshitz Cannibalism in High Medieval English The King and the Whore: King Roderick Literature and La Cava by Heather Blurton by Elizabeth Drayson The Drama of Masculinity and Medieval English Guild Culture Langland’s Early Modern Identities by Christina M. Fitzgerald by Sarah A. Kelen Chaucer’s Visions of Manhood Cultural Studies of the Modern by Holly A. Crocker Middle Ages The Literary Subversions of Medieval Edited by Eileen A. Joy, Myra J. Seaman, Women Kimberly K. Bell, and Mary by Jane Chance K. Ramsey CULTURAL STUDIES OF THE MODERN MIDDLE AGES Edited by Eileen A. Joy, Myra J. Seaman, Kimberly K. Bell, and Mary K. Ramsey CULTURAL STUDIES OF THE MODERN MIDDLE AGES Copyright © Eileen A. Joy, Myra J. Seaman, Kimberly K. Bell, and Mary K. Ramsey, 2007. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-1-4039-7307-8 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2007 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-53432-6 ISBN 978-0-230-61004-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230610040 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cultural studies of the modern Middle Ages / edited by Eileen A. Joy [et al.]. p. cm.—(The new Middle Ages) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Civilization, Modern—1950– 2. Civilization, Medieval. 3. Medievalism. 4. Popular culture. 5. Reality television programs. 6. Literature, Medieval— History and criticism. 7. Literature, Modern—Medieval inﬂ uences. 8. United States—Civilization—Medieval inﬂ uences. 9. United States—Politics and government—2001– 10. War on Terrorism, 2001– I. Joy, Eileen A., 1962– CB430.C8475 2007 909.8295—dc22 2007012373 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First Edition: December 2007 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Foreword Medieval Presentism before the Present xi Nancy F. Partner Introduction Through a Glass, Darkly: Medieval Cultural Studies at the End of History 1 Eileen A. Joy and Myra J. Seaman Part I Medieval, Reality, Television 1 Models of (Im)Perfection: Parodic Refunctioning in Spike TV’s The Joe Schmo Show and Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Tale of Sir Thopas” 23 Kimberly K. Bell 2 “She appears as brightly radiant as she once was foul”: Medieval Conversion Narratives and Contemporary Makeover Shows 47 Angela Jane Weisl 3 Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: Moral Lessons from Handlyng Synne and Survivor 63 Cynthia A. Ho and James Driggers 4 Back to the Future: Living the Liminal Life in the Manor House and the Medieval Dream 91 Betsy McCormick Hinge: Entertaining History/Historical Entertainments 5 Medieval Histories and Modern Realism: Yet Another Origin of the Novel 121 Nancy F. Partner 6 Sacrificing Fiction and the Quest for the Real King Arthur 135 Myra J. Seaman and John Green viii CONTENTS Part II Medieval, Reality, Politics 7 The Crisis of Legitimation in Bush’s America and Henry IV’s England 157 Daniel T. Kline 8 Torture, Inquisition, Medievalism, Reality, TV 189 Steve Guthrie 9 Wolves, Outlaws, and Enemy Combatants 217 Michael E. Moore 10 Exteriority Is Not a Negation But a Marvel: Hospitality, Terrorism, Levinas, Beowulf 237 Eileen A. Joy Otherword Opening Time: Psychoanalysis and Medieval Culture 269 Michael Uebel Afterword Intertemporality 295 Jeffrey Jerome Cohen List of Contributors 301 Index 303 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The editors of this volume would like to acknowledge fi rst Betsy McCormick who, thanks to her seemingly endless and enthusiastic devotion to TV and all it has to off er, was the true inspiration behind this book in its earliest incep- tion. Thanks, also, to the members of the BABEL Working Group, especially Anne Clark Bartlett, Betsy McCormick, and Cindy Ho, who participated in the roundtable discussion session “Remaking the Middle Ages on Reality TV” at the 2004 Southeastern Medieval Association in Charleston, South Carolina. Even more thanks are due to Bonnie Wheeler, who was in the audience in Charleston, and without whose early and generous support this book would not be possible. We wish to express our gratitude as well to the anonymous reader whose meticulously detailed comments were invaluable to the editors and authors as they prepared the fi nal drafts of the manuscript. And fi nally, spe- cial appreciation is reserved for the owner, Adam Pashea, and the sommeliers— Andrew Pastor, Robert (the Second) Shortridge, and Curtis Gilberson—of Erato Wine Bar in Saint Louis, for graciously providing the BABEL Working Group with its offi cial editorial offi ce, and for the readers and commentators of the weblog In The Middle (http://www.jjcohen.blogspot.com), for providing BABEL with is fl oating residence. For permission to reprint their photographs from the 2004 Republican National Convention in Daniel Kline’s chapter, “The Crisis of Legitimation in Bush’s America and Henry IV’s England” (chapter 7), we thank Patrick Ruffi ni (www.patrickruffi ni.com) and Michael Minn (www.michaelminn.net/newyork). For permission to reprint Nancy Partner’s essay, “Medieval Histories and Modern Realism: Yet another Origin of the Novel” (chapter 5), originally published in Modern Language Notes 114.4 (1999): 857–873, we thank Johns Hopkins University Press.