The Tempter's Voice : Language and the Fall in Medieval Literature / Eric Jager.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jager, Eric, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible. Genesis, III--Criticism, interpretation, etc--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Bible.

Bible. Genesis, III--Criticism, interpretation, etc--History--Early church, ca. 30-600.

Literature, Medieval--History and criticism.

Literature, Medieval.

Fall of man in literature.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 336 p. :) ill. ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Why was the story of Adam, Eve, and the Serpent so important to medieval literary culture? Eric Jager argues that during the Middle Ages the story of the Fall was incorporated into a comprehensive myth about language. Drawing on a wide range of texts, Jager shows how patristic and medieval authors used the Fall to confront practical and theoretical problems in many areas of life and thought-including education, hermeneutics, rhetoric, feudal politics, and gender relations. Jager explores the Fall's meaning for clergy and laity, nobles and commoners, men and women.Among the works Jager discusses are texts by Ambrose, Augustine, the early Christian poet Avitus, and scholastic authors; Old English biblical epics; Middle English spiritual writings; French courtesy books; and the poetry of Dante and Chaucer. Examples from the visual arts are included as well. Jager links medieval interpretations of the Fall to underlying cultural anxieties about the ambiguity of the sign, the instability of oral tradition, the pleasure of the text, and the many rhetorical guises of the tempter's voice. He also assesses the modern and postmodern legacy of the Fall, showing how this myth continues to embody central ideas concerning language.The Tempter's Voice will be essential reading for scholars and students in such fields as medieval studies, literary theory, gender theory, comparative literature, cultural history, and the history of religion.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

NOTE ON BIBLICAL CITATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Part One. Augustine's Garden

1. The School of Paradise

2. The Genesis of Hermeneutics

3. The Garden of Eloquence

Part Two. The Medieval Garden

4. The Old English Epic of the Fall

5. The Seducer and the Daughter of Eve

6. The Carnal Letter in Chaucer's Earthly Paradise

Epilogue. Signs of the Fall: From the Middle Ages to Postmodernism

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-323) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Mrz 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781501721823

1501721828

OCLC:

1080549332