The Subject Medieval/Modern: Text and Governance in the Middle Ages

by Peter Haidu

Overview

This ambitious book presents the most thorough historicist account to date of the development of subjectivity in the medieval period, as traced in medieval literature and historical documentation . Presenting the essence of the modern subject as resting in its subjection to specific historical forms of state power, the author examines literary texts from the Middle Ages that participate in the cultural invention of the subject. Overall, The Subject Medieval/Modern makes a remarkable case for the relevance of studying the Middle Ages to today's world.

The book examines the constitution of subjects in literary texts as the result of the interplay of violence, ideology, and political structures as an integral part of the process of state-formation between the ninth and the fifteenth centuries. Each text is considered a singular event, a unique, self-reflexive structure modifying conventions in ideological exploration to offer performative models of subjectivity. Some texts line up with political evolution, others take a critical distance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804747448
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	12/12/2003
Series:	Figurae: Reading Medieval Culture
Edition description:	1
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Peter Haidu taught medieval literature and critical theory at Columbia, Yale, Virginia, and Illinois, before retiring from UCLA. He now lives in Paris. He is the author of Subject of Violence: The Song of Roland and the Birth of the State.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
Part I.	Before the State
1.	The Peace Movement: A Crisis in Ideology	9
2.	War, Peasant Revolt, and the Saint Alexis	39
3.	Epic and the King's Peace: The Song of Roland and Louis' Coronation	57
4.	The Love-Lyric as Political Technology	79
5.	Chretien de Troyes: The Perspectival Novel	95
6.	"Marie de France": The Postcolonial lais	121
7.	Raoul de Cambrai: Haunting Violence	142
Part II.	Governance
8.	Representation in State Governance I: Literacy	155
9.	Representation in State Governance II: Agency	180
Part III.	In State
10.	Problematizing the Subject: Rose I	215
11.	Problematizing Identity: Silence	239
12.	Subject and Community: Adam's "Conges"	266
13.	The Subject on the Subject: Philippe de Beaumanoir	281
14.	Ideologies of Subjectivity: Christine de Pizan and Alain Chartier	303
15.	"Love for Sale": Francois Villon's Textament of Solidarity	328
	Conclusion: The Medieval Crucible	341
	Notes	365
	Index	437

Editorial Reviews

"Haidu's prose is as elegant as it is electrifying, his interpretations as intricate as they are intriguing, and no resume could hope to do them justice. A must read."

Speculum

"This book revolutionizes contemporary understandings of medieval culture, demonstrates the applicability of medieval texts to modernity, and expands the ways in which literary theory may be applied to texts and contextually criticized."

PEER English: The Journal of New Critical Thinking

"This book revolutionizes contemporary understandings of medieval culture, demonstrates the applicability of medieval texts to modernity, and expands the ways in which literary theory may be applied to texts and contextually criticized."

PEER English: The Journal of New Critical Thinking

"Haidu's prose is as elegant as it is electrifying, his interpretations as intricate as they are intriguing, and no resume could hope to do them justice. A must read."—Speculum


"This book revolutionizes contemporary understandings of medieval culture, demonstrates the applicability of medieval texts to modernity, and expands the ways in which literary theory may be applied to texts and contextually criticized."—PEER English: The Journal of New Critical Thinking

From the Publisher