The last decade has witnessed a striking upsurge of interest in Iberian hagiography. In painting and the fine arts through to poetic and narrative treatments composed in Castilian and Catalan, the legacies of Christ, Mary, and the saints have been approached from a range of perspectives and subjected to detailed critical scrutiny. This book, which focuses specifically on the application of theoretical and methodological approaches to analysis, asks what scholars of early Iberian hagiography can bring to the analysis of the sacred past and how the study of the discipline can be taken forward innovatively in the future. Its fourteen essays, each focusing on a different aspect of composition, seek in particular to explore interdisciplinary methodologies and the ways in which they intersect with broader discourses in other branches of research. Contributors are Carme Arronis Llopis, Fernando Banos Vallejo, Andrew M. Beresford, Sarah Jane Boss, Sarah V. Buxton, Marinela Garcia Sempere, Ryan D. Giles, Ariel Guiance, Lluis Ramon i Ferrer, Rebeca Sanmartin Bastida, Connie L. Scarborough, and Lesley K. Twomey.

The essays in this volume cover lyric, hagiography, clerical verse narrative, frontier balladry, historical and codicological studies, and include the draft of an unpublished essay found amongst Professor Deyermond's papers. Professor Alan Deyermond was one of the leading British Hispanists of the last fifty years, whose work had a formative influence on medieval Hispanic studies around the world. There were several tributes to his work published during his lifetime, and it is fitting that this one, in his memory, should be produced by Tamesis, the publishing house that he helped establish and to which he contributed so much as author and editor right up to his death. The contributors to this volume are some of Professor Deyermond's former colleagues, doctoral students, and members of the Medieval Hispanic Research Seminar. Given Professor Deyermond's breadth of expertise, the span of the essays is appropriately wide, ranging chronologically from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, and covering lyric, hagiography, clerical verse narrative, frontier balladry, historical and codicological studies. The volume opens with a personal memoir of her father by Ruth Deyermond, and closes with the draft of an unpublished essay found amongst Professor Deyermond's papers, and edited by his literary executor, Professor David Hook. Andrew M. Beresfordis Reader and Head of Hispanic Studies at the University of Durham. Louise M. Haywood is Reader in Medieval Iberian Literary and Cultural Studies, and Head of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Cambridge. Julian Weiss is Professor of Medieval & Early Modern Hispanic Studies at King's College London.

Sacred Skin offers the first systematic evaluation of the dissemination and development of the cult of St. Bartholomew in Spain. Exploring the paradoxes of hagiographic representation and their ambivalent effect on the observer, the book focuses on literary and visual testimonies produced from the emergence of a distinctive vernacular voice through to the formalization of Bartholomew's saintly identity and his transformation into a key expression of Iberian consciousness. Drawing on and extending advances in cultural criticism, particularly theories of selfhood and the complex ontology of the human body, its five chapters probe the evolution of hagiographic conventions, demonstrating how flaying poses a unique challenge to our understanding of the nature and meaning of identity. See inside the book.

An introduction to the legends of Saints Thais and Pelagia, together with critical editions of the five Castilian redactions. The legends of the holy harlots, Thais and Pelagia, are two of the most controversial accounts of female sanctity to have circulated in Spain during the Middle Ages. In this book, which reviews the origin and development of theircults, the author reconsiders the relationships that have traditionally been thought to exist between them and three of the other so-called prostitute saints: Mary Magdalene, Mary of Egypt, and Mary the niece of Abraham. This is accompanied by an evaluation of the five Castilian versions of the two legends and their Latin sources, followed by a reading of their thematic and structural significance, with particular emphasis paid to the ways in which the twowomen renounce their sins and embark on the slow and agonizing path of redemption. The book is completed by critical editions of the five Castilian versions. ANDREW M. BERESFORD lectures in Spanish at the University of Durham.

An overview of the issues and critical debates in the field of Women's Studies within the area of peninsular Hispanism. After an introductory survey of the development of women's studies in the context of Spain, twenty-one chronologically ordered essays by scholars from Britain, the United States, Spain and Mexico explore women's roles in the cultural production of their time from the Middle Ages to the present. The essays of the first half examine the work of the earliest women writers and artists - memoirs and meditations, novellas and plays - and the representationor self-representation of women in a broad sweep of texts including medieval folksong, hagiography, and painting of the Baroque era. The modern section focuses on women's participation in politics and culture from the eighteenth century onwards: as translators and essayists, as consumers of visual ephemera and conduct books, as writers and artists, film directors and performers. An alternative and supplement to standard literary histories, thisvolume offers new insights into women's agency and representation in the cultural heritage of Spain. It will prove a useful and stimulating resource for students at all levels, and an accessible guide for the general reader. XON DE ROS and GERALDINE HAZBUN lecture in Spanish literature at the University of Oxford. CONTRIBUTORS: Nieves Baranda, Andrew M. Beresford, Monica Bolufer Peruga, Helena Buffery, Rosanna Cantavella, Lou Charnon-Deutsch, Georgina Dopico-Black, Joanna Evans, Carmen Fracchia, Margaret F. Greer, Jessamy Harvey, Louise M. Haywood, Geraldine Hazbun, Susan Kirkpatrick, Frances Lannon, Laura Lonsdale, Maria Ana Masera Cerutti, Roberta Quance, Xonde Ros, Alexander Samson, Alison Sinclair, Joyce Tolliver.