Thinking of the Medieval
Midcentury Intellectuals and the Middle Ages

This book examines how mid-twentieth-century intellectuals' engagement with the Middle Ages shaped politics, art, and history.

Benjamin A. Saltzman (Edited by), R. D. Perry (Edited by)

9781108478960, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 October 2022

290 pages
23.4 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.7 kg

'This fascinating volume promises to make a valuable intervention in medieval studies and a rich and challenging contribution to our understanding of the life of the Middle Ages in modernity.' Josh Davies, King's College London

The mid-twentieth century gave rise to a rich array of new approaches to the study of the Middle Ages by both professional medievalists and those more well-known from other pursuits, many of whom continue to exert their influence over politics, art, and history today. Attending to the work of a diverse and transnational group of intellectuals – Hannah Arendt, Erich Auerbach, W. E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Erwin Panofsky, Simone Weil, among others – the essays in this volume shed light on these thinkers in relation to one another and on the persistence of their legacies in our own time. This interdisciplinary collection gives us a fuller and clearer sense of how these figures made some of their most enduring contributions with medieval culture in mind. Thinking of the Medieval is a timely reminder of just how vital the Middle Ages have been in shaping modern thought.

Introduction: Directions of Thought – The Middle Ages at the Mid-century R. D. Perry and Benjamin A. Saltzman
Part I. Politics: 1. Outside History: Fanon's Negative Manicheism D. Vance Smith
2. 'The noblest blood God ever made': W. E. B. Du Bois's Medievalism in the Contexts of the World Wars Cord J. Whitaker
3. Ernst Kantorowicz, Carl Schmitt, and the University of California Regents Nancy van Deusen
4. Hannah Arendt's Middle Ages for the Left R. D. Perry
Part II. Arts: 5. Curtius and Jung: Commonplaces, Archetypes, and Literature's Collective Unconscious Emily V. Thornbury
6. Old English at the Midcentury: Poetry, Scholarship, and Fiction in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s Clare A. Lees
7. Erwin Panofsky's Neo-Kantian Humanism and the Purported Relation between Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism C. Oliver O'Donnell
8. 'Are women human?': Authority, Gender, and Dante in Dorothy L. Sayers's Scholarship Helen Brookman
Part III. Epochs: 9. Periodization Trouble: Auerbach, Huizinga, and the Question of Medieval Realism Jane O. Newman
10. Medieval Mysticism and the Making of Simone Weil Anna Kelner
11. Hermeneutics and the Medieval Horizon: Zumthor, Jauss, Barthes, and Gadamer Benjamin A. Saltzman
Afterword Martin Jay
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Literature & literary studies [D]