Table of Contents Acknowledgements iiiList of Abbreviations v CHAPTER ONE: Introduction1 I. General Introduction and Aims of Research1 II. The Pearl-Poet and the Medieval Sensorium4 III. Historical and Ecclesiastical Milieu9 IV. Contemporary Religious Writings19 V. Ambiguous Divinity: The Pearl-Poet’s Representation 33 ? CHAPTER TWO:Cleanness: The Dialectics of Visio Dei, and Ocular Scepticism 40 I. Theme, Structure and Sources40 II. God Seeing and Being Seen: The Dialectics of Visio Dei 52 III. Seeing, Touching and Believing: Sensorial Scepticism 72 IV. Conclusion88 ? CHAPTER THREE:Patience: Auditory Epiphanies and the Dialogics of Interaction 91 I. Overview and Sources91 II. The Epiphany of the Ear98 III. Jonah’s Voice116 IV. Conclusion139 ? CHAPTER FOUR:Pearl: The Sensory Itinerary towards Jerusalem 145 I. Descent in the Erber: Corporeal Perception154 II. Advance in the Terrestrial Paradise: Spiritual Perception 169 III. Ascent toward the Heavenly City: Mystical or Psychosomatic Perception 188 IV. Conclusion205 CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusion211 Bibliography222
The senses and their understanding by the medieval laity is an exciting arena in which many authors of the golden age of Middle English vernacular literature exercised their exegetical ability and literary craftsmanship. This book examines the representation of the divine by the anonymous fourteenth-century Pearl-poet, through a close reading of his three “scriptural” Middle English poems, Cleanness, Patience and Pearl, against the background of the culture of sensorium in late medieval England. ? In this book, individual corporeal senses and general ideas about sensory perception will be investigated, as well as the non-physical senses. By bringing the Pearl-poet’s treatment of the sensorium-both of God and of humans-into the focus of attention, Dr Bao illustrates how human interpretation of sense-perceptible signs, and their decision to regulate sensory experience accordingly, play a significant role in the poet’s “vernacular theology”, and in the spiritual life of late medieval English laity.
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