The Permeable Self: Five Medieval Relationships
()
About this ebook
How, Barbara Newman asks, did the myth of the separable heart take such a firm hold in the Middle Ages, from lovers exchanging hearts with one another to mystics exchanging hearts with Jesus? What special traits gave both saints and demoniacs their ability to read minds? Why were mothers who died in childbirth buried in unconsecrated ground? Each of these phenomena, as diverse as they are, offers evidence for a distinctive medieval idea of the person in sharp contrast to that of the modern "subject" of "individual."
Starting from the premise that the medieval self was more permeable than its modern counterpart, Newman explores the ways in which the self's porous boundaries admitted openness to penetration by divine and demonic spirits and even by other human beings. She takes up the idea of "coinherence," a state familiarly expressed in the amorous and devotional formula "I in you and you in me," to consider the theory and practice of exchanging the self with others in five relational contexts of increasing intimacy. Moving from the outside in, her chapters deal with charismatic teachers and their students, mind-reading saints and their penitents, lovers trading hearts, pregnant mothers who metaphorically and literally carry their children within, and women and men in the throes of demonic obsession. In a provocative conclusion, she sketches some of the far-reaching consequences of this type of personhood by drawing on comparative work in cultural history, literary criticism, anthropology, psychology, and ethics.
The Permeable Self offers medievalists new insight into the appeal and dangers of the erotics of pedagogy; the remarkable influence of courtly romance conventions on hagiography and mysticism; and the unexpected ways that pregnancy—often devalued in mothers—could be positively ascribed to men, virgins, and God. The half-forgotten but vital idea of coinherence is of relevance far beyond medieval studies, however, as Newman shows how it reverberates in such puzzling phenomena as telepathy, the experience of heart transplant recipients who develop relationships with their deceased donors, the phenomenon of psychoanalytic transference, even the continuities between ideas of demonic possession and contemporary understandings of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In The Permeable Self Barbara Newman once again confirms her status as one of our most brilliant and thought-provoking interpreters of the Middle Ages.
Barbara Newman
Barbara Newman is Professor of English and Religion at Northwestern University. Among her many works are Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine (California, 1987, second edition 1997) and From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature (1995).
Read more from Barbara Newman
Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Dreamcatcher Codes Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Permeable Self
Related ebooks
Confronting Religious Judgmentalism: Christian Humanism and the Moral Imagination Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Confrontational Wit of Jesus: Christian Humanism and the Moral Imagination Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBodies and Battlefields: Abortion, War, and the Moral Sentiments of Sacrifice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfronting Religious Violence: Christian Humanism and the Moral Imagination Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThomas Merton's Poetics of Self-Dissolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfronting a Controlling God: Christian Humanism and the Moral Imagination Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Other "Hermit" of Thoreau's Walden Pond: The Sojourn of Edmond Stuart Hotham Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLoving and Hating the World: Ambivalence and Discipleship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAngels, Worms, and Bogeys: The Christian Ethic of Pietism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBodies in Society: Essays on Christianity in Contemporary Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod of Earth: Discovering a Radically Ecological Christianity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Is Ethically Demanded?: K. E. Løgstrup's Philosophy of Moral Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfronting Religious Absolutism: Christian Humanism and the Moral Imagination Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEngaging Luther: A (New) Theological Assessment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLevinas and the Crisis of Humanism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfter Pandemic, After Modernity: The Relational Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTeresa of Avila and the Rhetoric of Femininity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDown the Nights and Down the Days: Eugene O'Neill's Catholic Sensibility Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnacting Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Body and Desire: Gregory of Nyssa's Ascetical Theology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnspeakable Beauty: A Novel: The Song of the Dove, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrankenstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confronting Religious Denial of Gay Marriage: Christian Humanism and the Moral Imagination Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsR. S. Thomas: A Stylistic Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSimone Weil: An Introduction to Her Thought Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flesh Made Word: Medieval Women Mystics, Writing, and the Incarnation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPicturing God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Proclamation and Theology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Criticism For You
The Art of Seduction: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5One Hundred Years of Solitude: A Novel by Gabriel Garcia Márquez | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Habit: by Charles Duhigg | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Speed Reading: How to Read a Book a Day - Simple Tricks to Explode Your Reading Speed and Comprehension Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/512 Rules For Life: by Jordan Peterson | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 48 Laws of Power: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Man's Search for Meaning: by Viktor E. Frankl | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Verity: by Colleen Hoover | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.by Brené Brown | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Letters to a Young Poet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bad Feminist: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain | Conversation Starters Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Circe: by Madeline Miller | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SUMMARY Of The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Virtues Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Reader’s Companion to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Permeable Self
0 ratings0 reviews