The Permeable Self: Five Medieval Relationships

Barbara Newman's book explores the idea of the separable heart in the Middle Ages, examining how it took hold and why saints and demoniacs could read minds. She argues that the medieval self was more permeable than its modern counterpart, allowing penetration by divine and demonic spirits and other human beings. Newman explores the theory and practice of exchanging the self with others in five relational contexts, drawing on comparative work in cultural history, literary criticism, anthropology, psychology, and ethics. The book offers insight into the appeal and dangers of the erotics of pedagogy, the influence of courtly romance conventions on hagiography and mysticism, and the unexpected ways that pregnancy could be ascribed to men, virgins, and God. Newman's work confirms her status as a brilliant and thought-provoking interpreter of the Middle Ages.

Format: Hardback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 17 September 2021
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

The myth of the separable heart took a firm hold in the Middle Ages, from lovers exchanging hearts with one another to mystics exchanging hearts with Jesus. What special traits gave both saints and demoniacs their ability to read minds? Why were mothers who died in childbirth buried in unconsecrated ground? Each of these phenomena, as diverse as they are, offers evidence for a distinctive medieval idea of the person in sharp contrast to that of the modern subject of individual.

Starting from the premise that the medieval self was more permeable than its modern counterpart, Newman explores the ways in which the self's porous boundaries admitted openness to penetration by divine and demonic spirits and even by other human beings. She takes up the idea of coinherence, a state familiarly expressed in the amorous and devotional formula I in you and you in me, to consider the theory and practice of exchanging the self with others in five relational contexts of increasing intimacy.

Moving from the outside in, her chapters deal with charismatic teachers and their students, mind-reading saints and their penitents, lovers trading hearts, pregnant mothers who metaphorically and literally carry their children within, and women and men in the throes of demonic obsession. In a provocative conclusion, she sketches some of the far-reaching consequences of this type of personhood by drawing on comparative work in cultural history, literary criticism, anthropology, psychology, and ethics.

The Permeable Self offers medievalists new insight into the appeal and dangers of the erotics of pedagogy; the remarkable influence of courtly romance conventions on hagiography and mysticism; and the unexpected ways that pregnancy—often devalued in mothers—could be perceived as a source of power and authority. Newman's work is a valuable contribution to the field of medieval studies, offering a fresh perspective on the complex and multifaceted nature of medieval personhood.

Weight: 748g
Dimension: 161 x 239 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780812253344