Ecstatic Transformation: On the Uses of Alterity in the Middle Ages

230 Pages·2005·1.8 MB·English

by  Michael Uebel (auth.)

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ECSTATIC TRANSFORMATION
ONTHE USES OFALTERITY INTHE
MIDDLE AGES
Michael Uebel
*
ECSTATIC TRANSFORMATION
© Michael Uebel, 2005.
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library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Uebel, Michael.
Ecstatic transformation : on the uses of alterity in the Middle Ages I
by Michael Uebel.
p. cm.-(New Middle Ages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-349-73279-1 ISBN 978-1-137-11140-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-11140-1
1. literature, Medieval-History and criticism. 2. Utopias in
literature. 3. Other (Philosophy) in literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PN682.U75U43 2005
809' .93372-dc22 2005047193
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For Keith and Cliff
because I'm still here

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments IX
Introduction: The Uses of Medieval Alterity 1
Part 1 The Material of Alterity 9
1. Eastern Marvels 11
2. Muslim Monstrosity 25
Part 2 The Space of Alterity 55
3. Medieval Desert Utopias 57
4. Desert Ecstasies 85
Part 3 The Structure of Alterity 101
5. The Marvel and the List 103
6. Monstrous Topoi 127
Postscript: Utopic Endings 151
Appendix: Translation of the Original Latin Letter of Prester John 155
Notes 161
Index 223

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
M
y first acknowledgment is to a body of words that I now scarcely
recognize as my own. The ideas and words here became animated
under the fever of finishing a Ph.D. and then finishing a career as a
medievalist working for tenure. The folder on my computer desktop, greet
ing me for years every time I logged on, is entitled simply "medievalbook."
This folder will always be associated with the end of things, having become,
in the words of Tom Shear, "a document to prove that I was here ...a doc
ument to prove I was at all." Utopic? Maybe.
It would be somehow amiss not to recognize the little people who have
tried to hinder me. Perhaps someday they'll understand why utopia is so
risky: two bitter narcissists in a certain headless department of English who
have no loyalty other than to their own self-causes, and another member of
the same who tirelessly proves Karl Kraus basically right-"out of a
hundred jackasses there are scarcely ten who will admit their nature,
and one at most who will put it in writing," whether that single ass knows
it or not.
True acknowledgments, of course, are always to real people and to how
they touched your life, your work. It would be a mistake to imagine that my
life and my work are squarely, or sometimes even remotely, superimposed,
and so I acknowledge first those who helped me predominantly in one area
or another. Those who made my life better by supplying at least one of the
things I cannot live without-thrills, regressions, laughter, and beauty-are:
Anna Cahill, Lisa Wensley, AI Ruch ("it's good to be the king"), Luke
Saladin, David Zorin, Celeste Buxton, Rob Quan, Buford Wynn, Johnny
Petot III, Scott Zumwalt, Jessica Hampton, November/Theresa (wherever
she may be), and the luminous "Max girls" (Lisa, Kristina, LaDonna, and
Jazzmine). I moved away or they moved away, but somehow we never did.
In other spheres, I have had the privilege of being encouraged and sup
ported by the intellectual generosity and goodwill of Aranye Fradenburg,
AI Shoaf, Steve Kruger, Sarah Stanbury, Laurie Finke, Bruce Holsinger,
Ethan Knapp, Patricia DeMarco, Hoyt Duggan, Maurice Apprey, Britton
Harwood, and James Goldstein. Thank you.