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Medieval Obscenities (Paperback)
Nicola F. McDonald, Nicola McDonald; Contributions by Alastair J. Alastair J. Minnis, Carolyne Larrington, Danuta Shanzer, …
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R785
Discovery Miles 7 850
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Obscenity is central to an understanding of medieval culture, and
it is here examined in a number of different media. Obscenity is,
if nothing else, controversial. Its definition, consumption and
regulation fire debate about the very meaning of art and culture,
law, politics and ideology. And it is often, erroneously, assumed
to be synonymous with modernity. Medieval Obscenities examines the
complex and contentious role of the obscene - what is offensive,
indecent or morally repugnant - in medieval culture from late
antiquity through to the end of the Middle Ages in western Europe.
Its approach is multidisciplinary, its methodologies divergent and
it seeks to formulate questions and stimulate debate. The essays
examine topics as diverse as Norse defecation taboos, the
Anglo-Saxon sexual idiom, sheela-na-gigs, impotence in the church
courts, bare ecclesiastical bottoms, rude sounds and dirty words,
as well as the modern reception and representation of the medieval
obscene. They demonstrate not only the vitality of medieval
obscenity, but its centrality to our understanding of the Middle
Ages and ourselves. Contributors: MICHAEL CAMILLE, GLENN DAVIS,
EMMA DILLON, SIMON GAUNT, JEREMY GOLDBERG, EAMONN KELLY, CAROLYNE
LARRINGTON, NICOLAMCDONALD, ALASTAIR MINNIS, DANUTA SHANZER
Most of the seven million people who visit the cathedral of Notre
Dame in Paris each year probably do not realize that the legendary
gargoyles adorning this medieval masterpiece were not constructed
until the nineteenth century. The first comprehensive history of
these world-famous monsters, "The Gargoyles of Notre Dame" argues
that they transformed the iconic thirteenth-century cathedral into
a modern monument. Michael Camille begins his long-awaited study by
recounting architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc's ambitious restoration
of the structure from 1843 to 1864, when the gargoyles were
designed, sculpted by the little-known Victor Pyanet, and
installed. These gargoyles, Camille contends, were not mere avatars
of the Middle Ages, but rather fresh creations - symbolizing an
imagined past - whose modernity lay precisely in their nostalgia.
He goes on to map the critical reception and many-layered
afterlives of these chimeras, notably in the works of such artists
and writers as Charles Meryon, Victor Hugo, and photographer Henri
Le Secq. Tracing their eventual evolution into icons of high
kitsch, Camille ultimately locates the gargoyles' place in the
twentieth-century imagination, exploring interpretations by
everyone from Winslow Homer to the Walt Disney Company. Lavishly
illustrated with more than three hundred images of its monumental
yet whimsical subjects, "The Gargoyles of Notre Dame" is a
must-read for historians of art and architecture and anyone whose
imagination has been sparked by the lovable monsters gazing out
over Paris from one of the world's most renowned vantage points.
What do they all mean - the lascivious ape, autophagic dragons,
pot-bellied heads, harp-playing asses, arse-kissing priests and
somersaulting jongleurs to be found protruding from the edges of
medieval buildings and in the margins of illuminated manuscripts?
Now available in a new hardback edition, Michael Camille's Image on
the Edge explores that riotous realm of marginal art, so often
explained away as mere decoration or zany doodles, where resistance
to social constraints flourished. Medieval image-makers focused
attention on the underside of society, the excluded and the
ejected. Peasants, servants, prostitutes and beggars all found
their place, along with knights and clerics, engaged in impudent
antics in the margins of prayer-books or, as gargoyles, on the
outsides of churches. Camille brings us to an understanding of how
marginality functioned in medieval culture and shows us just how
scandalous, subversive and amazing the art of the time could be.
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