Gratuitous book plug
Mar. 2nd, 2006 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I just want to say that I love Joachim Bumke's Höfische Kultur (translated under the imaginative title of 'Courtly Culture'). It's such a fantastic resource for all aspects of, well courtly culture, and how it is manifested and sometimes transformed in literature. It brings such a fabulous range of sources together, and the analysis is good too.
On a religious lit note, I just bought Caroline Bynum's "Holy Feast and Holy Fast" (well, it is Lent.) It's quite old now (pub 1984), but it really is a very stimulating book - and it makes one aware of a mass of interesting material which is off the undergraduate's radar. I've read it before, but it gave me a new perspective on mediaeval attitudes to the body and its role in religion, and it's still providing food for thought. Very convincingly argued.
So there we are, two excellent books, one from the old school, one from the new. Saying that these are great books isn't saying anything new, of course, but no matter....
On a religious lit note, I just bought Caroline Bynum's "Holy Feast and Holy Fast" (well, it is Lent.) It's quite old now (pub 1984), but it really is a very stimulating book - and it makes one aware of a mass of interesting material which is off the undergraduate's radar. I've read it before, but it gave me a new perspective on mediaeval attitudes to the body and its role in religion, and it's still providing food for thought. Very convincingly argued.
So there we are, two excellent books, one from the old school, one from the new. Saying that these are great books isn't saying anything new, of course, but no matter....