No description available.

No description available.

Gottfried Keller’s Sieben Legenden (1872) are, on the surface, a collection of moral fables appealing to a system of Christian ethics that is in accord with Church dogmatics. However, such a reading discounts how the origin of the texts spans various periods of Keller’s own life experiences, education and political activities. This project exposes the political elements involved in Keller’s strategic re-use of religious materials drawn from the Golden Legend, various prophetic books of the Bible, hagiography, and the German mystic Angelus Silesius in the Legenden and explores how he uses this cycle of short stories to question Church ethics, family morals and the political impulses of the nineteenth century -- both in his native Switzerland and in Germany --, including Swiss religious struggles and the founding of the German Empire in 1870. It is my contention that Keller’s political life prompted his writing of the Legenden and influenced the timing of their publication, and that critics' attempts to limit his use of religious diction to a response to Feuerbach greatly underestimate the popular resonance of religious tropes and figures as commentaries on political situations and ideologies. His careful juxtapositions of source materials from the Roman-Christian era's martyrologies with High Medieval stories of redemption lead to the famous "Tanzlegendchen," which suggests the absolute bankruptcy of all ideology. / text

'Legendary Metal Smiths and Early English Literature' is a study of Christian religious influence on the portrayal of a powerful technology, metallurgy, in Old English verse. Starting from the controversy over the supernatural role of metal smiths in a metrical Anglo-Saxon charm, it proceeds to explore the impact of Christian thought on attitudes to the metal-worker in late antiquity and early medieval Europe. Significant and contentious characterizations of the smith in the Cain legend, the lives of the saints, and legends of Christ are discussed in turn. A chapter on heroic verse and another on wonder-working discuss, among other topics, the theory that Anglo-Saxon metal smiths were regarded with fear and superstition. The thesis put forth by the author in the course of this survey is that the critical approach which explains the concern of Anglo-Saxon literature with smithcraft as little more than an irrational primitivism finds little support in the religious writing of the period. What requires explanation is not the view that metallurgy was a matter of Christian concern, but the assumption that it was not. While this study is primarily concerned with mapping literary themes, it is not confined to the world of the imagination. Holding that themes, in order to be appreciated, must be perceived, where possible, in the light of the historical conditions in which they flourished, it devotes part of its space to a consideration of the latter. It examines the role of the monastic movement in disseminating an idealistic view of industry; describes the achievements of Anglo-Saxon metal-working; and attempts to appreciate some of the real hardships faced by workers in the Anglo-Saxon forge. The insights gained from this approach lead ultimately to a new reading of the metrical Anglo-Saxon charm with which the study began, a reading which, rather than peering backwards into the pagan past, looks forward to subsequent and more familiar examples of the forge in literature.

No description available.

No description available.

This study of the Salome legend in the arts covers the historical background of the Salome legend, Salome in the early Christian era and in the Middle Ages, Salome in the Renaissance, and Salome in modern times.

This paper interrogates the nature of loyalty and disloyalty to Spain in the Philippines during the British occupation of Manila in 1762-1764. It examines the identity and motivations of the thousands of soldiers who joined Simón de Anda’s army that mobilized against the British invaders, as well the Indigenous people who rose up in rebellion in the provinces to the north of Manila during this period, in order to preserve Spanish colonial rule. It also considers the nature of infidelity to Spain in the occupied Philippines. This paper argues that, in a large part due to the cohesiveness of Catholicism among converted Indians, the Spanish empire in the Philippines proved remarkably resilient under the pressure of invasion and occupation. The Black Legend blinded the British to the complexities of the real balance of power in in Manila and the Philippines during the Seven Years War. / text

The north transept portal at Notre-Dame in Paris depicts the legend of Theophilus. This legend is about a church official who sells his soul to the devil but then repents and is granted salvation with the help of the Virgin. This legend was one of the most popular Marian miracles in the medieval period, but it was extremely rare in sculpture. The rare subject, combined with the location’s importance (over a ceremonial door), lead me to propose a supplementary reading of this relief. The general consensus is that the Theophilus legend was used didactically or to honor the Virgin, and while I do not disagree that these reasons hold true at Notre-Dame as well, I propose an additional, site-specific reading. Considering the social and political environment of the cathedral and its hierarchy, especially the relationship between the bishop and his canons over the jurisdiction of the cathedral during the medieval period and particularly during the construction of the Gothic church, I contend that the Theophilus legend depicted on the north transept portal is a visual manifestation of the relationship between the bishop and his chapter. The lack of the bishop’s authority is portrayed, for a specially educated audience, in the inclusion of the bishop in a legend where he was a minor figure and in a sculpture in a physical location—the entrance from the canons’ cloister— where he had no authority. I argue further that, because of the exegetical identification of the Virgin with the church, the canons’ special devotion to the Virgin, and the canons’ association with the church they were in charge of building and running, the Marian imagery was a device used by the canons to mark their presence in their cathedral and, by asserting their presence, to demonstrate their authority and independence from the bishop. / text

No description available.