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Piers Plowman and the Poetics of Enigma - Riddles, Rhetoric, and Theology (Hardcover)
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Piers Plowman and the Poetics of Enigma - Riddles, Rhetoric, and Theology (Hardcover)
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In this book, Curtis Gruenler proposes that the concept of the
enigmatic, latent in a wide range of medieval thinking about
literature, can help us better understand in medieval terms much of
the era’s most enduring literature, from the riddles of the
Anglo-Saxon bishop Aldhelm to the great vernacular works of Dante,
Chaucer, Julian of Norwich, and, above all, Langland’s Piers
Plowman. Riddles, rhetoric, and theology—the three fields of
meaning of aenigma in medieval Latin—map a way of thinking about
reading and writing obscure literature that was widely shared
across the Middle Ages. The poetics of enigma links inquiry about
language by theologians with theologically ambitious literature.
Each sense of enigma brings out an aspect of this poetics. The
playfulness of riddling, both oral and literate, was joined to a
Christian vision of literature by Aldhelm and the Old English
riddles of the Exeter Book. Defined in rhetoric as an obscure
allegory, enigma was condemned by classical authorities but
resurrected under the influence of Augustine as an aid to
contemplation. Its theological significance follows from a favorite
biblical verse among medieval theologians, “We see now through a
mirror in an enigma, then face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12). Along
with other examples of the poetics of enigma, Piers Plowman can be
seen as a culmination of centuries of reflection on the importance
of obscure language for knowing and participating in endless
mysteries of divinity and humanity and a bridge to the importance
of the enigmatic in modern literature. This book will be especially
useful for scholars and undergraduate students interested in
medieval European literature, literary theory, and contemplative
theology.
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