"Mr. Bloch has attempted to establish what he calls a 'literary anthropology.' The project is important and ambitious. It seems to me that Mr. Bloch has completely achieved this ambition." –Michel Foucault"Bloch's Study is a genuinely interdisciplinary one, bringing together elements of history, ethnology, philology, philosophy, economics and literature, with the undoubted ambition of generating a new synthesis which will enable us to read the Middle Ages in a different light.Stated simply, and in terms which do justice neither to the density nor the subtlety of his argument, Bloch's thesis is this: that medieval society perceived itself in terms of a vertical mode of descent from origins. This model is articulated etymologically in medieval theories of grammar and language, and is consequently reflected in historical and theological writings; it is also latent in the genealogical structure of the aristocratic family as it began to be organized in France in the twelfth century, and is made manifest in such systems of signs as heraldry and the adoption of patronymns. . . .It is an ingenious and compelling synthesis which no medievalist, even on this side of the Atlantic, can afford to ignore." –Nicholas Mann, Times Literary Supplement

Briefly describes the history of the fabliaux, analyzes the themes and structure of these ribald medieval French poems, and argues that they represent the origins of modern humor.

When Moses Reed, a termite inspector, dies under mysterious circumstances, his ex-wife, a computer hacker, a house husband, a college professor, and the owner of the Daedalus pub join together to investigate

Product Description: These essays, originally comprising an issue of Representations, explore the relation between gender, eroticism, and violence through close analysis of a range of both high and popular cultural forms, from R. Howard Bloch on medieval theology to Carol Clover on contemporary slasher films...read more

Product Description: Until now the advent of Western romantic love has been seen as a liberation from—or antidote to—ten centuries of misogyny. In this major contribution to gender studies, R. Howard Bloch demonstrates how similar the ubiquitous antifeminism of medieval times and the romantic idealization of woman actually are...read more

Product Description: "While modernists are currently so mired in the question of who did what to whom during World War II that they have lost a sense of intellectual urgency, the study of medieval literature and culture has never been more alive or at a more interestingly innovative stage...read more

Product Description: The Anonymous Marie de France offers a fundamental reconception of the person generally assumed to be the first woman writer in French, the woman now referred to as Marie de France. Written by renowned medievalist R. Howard Bloch, it is the first book to consider all of the writing ascribed to Marie, including her famous Lais, her 103 animal fables, and the earliest vernacular Saint Patrick’s Purgatory...read more

Product Description: The question of what it means to be human is at the core of Western philosophical and scientific inquiry. As conceptualized in the Western tradition, “humanity” has been understood and defined in opposition to the animal, which is said to lack the rationality and language that we adduce as the clearest evidence of our difference from beasts...read more

Product Description: This collection explores how Old French fabliaux disrupt literal and figurative bodies. Essays cover theoretical issues including fragmentation and multiplication, social anxiety and excessive circulation, performative productions and creative formations, to trace the competing consequences that arise from this literary body's unsettling capacity...read more

The story of the creation and history of the Bayeux Tapestry describes the famed textile's panoramic record of the incidents and circumstances leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066, as well as its eventful existence since its creation.

The story of the creation and history of the Bayeux Tapestry describes the famed textile's panoramic record of the incidents and circumstances leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066, as well as its eventful existence since its creation.