Medieval Identity Machines
Jeffrey J. Cohen
In Medieval Identity Machines, Jeffrey J. Cohen examines the messiness, permeability, and perversity of medieval bodies, arguing that human identity always exceeds the limits of the flesh. Combining critical theory with a rigorous reading of medieval texts, Cohen asks if the category “human” isn’t too small to contain the multiplicity of identities.
Cohen’s ecstatic eloquence, arising from his obvious passion for these discombobulated masses of selfhood seeking human agency, imbues the text with an intellectual urgency and snappy rhythm.
Arthuriana
In Medieval Identity Machines, Jeffrey J. Cohen examines the messiness, permeability, and perversity of medieval bodies, arguing that human identity always exceeds the limits of the flesh. Combining critical theory with a rigorous reading of medieval texts, Cohen asks if the category “human” isn’t too small to contain the multiplicity of identities. As such, this book is the first to argue for a “posthuman” Middle Ages and to make extensive use of the philosophical writings of Gilles Deleuze to rethink the medieval.
Among the topics that Cohen covers are the passionate bond between men and horses in chivalric training; the interrelation of demons, celibacy, and colonialism in an Anglo-Saxon saint’s life; Lancelot’s masochism as envisioned by Chrétien de Troyes; the voice of thunder echoing from Margery Kempe; and the fantasies that sustained some dominant conceptions of race.
This tour of identity—in all its fragility and diffusion—illustrates the centrality of the Middle Ages to theory as it enhances our understanding of self, embodiment, and temporality in the medieval world.
$26.00 paper ISBN 978-0-8166-4003-4
368 pages, 4 b&w photos, 5 7/8 x 9, 2003
Jeffrey J. Cohen is associate professor of English and human sciences at George Washington University. He is the author of Of Giants: Sex, Monsters, and the Middle Ages (Minnesota, 1999).
Cohen’s ecstatic eloquence, arising from his obvious passion for these discombobulated masses of selfhood seeking human agency, imbues the text with an intellectual urgency and snappy rhythm.
Arthuriana
In this provocative and illuminating study, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen brings to bear the somantic identity theories of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatari on both the textual and literal corpus of medieval culture.
Medium Aevum
Very ambitious, at times brilliant attempt to refigure our understanding of medieval forms of identity. Provides a very compelling analysis.
Speculum
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Possible Bodies
1. Time’s Machines
2. Chevalerie
3. Masoch/Lancelotism
4. The Solitude of Guthlac
5. The Becoming-Liquid of Margery Kempe
6. On Saracen Enjoyment
Postscript: Possible Futures
Notes
Bibliography
Index