Myra Seaman

College of Charleston, English, Faculty Member

Followers

318

Following

183

Co-authors

Public Views

Founding editor, *postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies*
[http://www.palgrave-journals.com/pmed/index.html]

co-founder, BABEL Working Group

less

Alex Woolf

University of St Andrews

François Soyer

University of New England - Australia

Mark Deuze

University of Amsterdam

Andrea Peto

Central European University

Stephen Muecke

University of Notre Dame (Australia)

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Giulia Sissa

Ucla

Lucie Dolezalova

Charles University, Prague

Florin Curta

University of Florida

InterestsView All (23)

Uploads

Papers by Myra Seaman

Why, Sometimes We've Believed Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The BABEL Working Group

Speculum, 2025

This article provides a narrative overview of the history, mission, and activities of the BABEL W... more This article provides a narrative overview of the history, mission, and activities of the BABEL Working Group (2004–21), a collective of scholars working in medieval studies who cultivated cross-disciplinary alliances between the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and fine arts in order to develop a more present-minded medieval studies and a more historically
minded cultural studies. In addition to this overview, the article shares an oral history including nearly forty scholars who participated in BABEL-sponsored events, some of whom were also involved in BABEL’s governance and leadership. Nearly fifty scholars in total participated in the oral history, and all of the responses, unabridged,will be published online as a companion
to this article. The responses shared in the article are organized by theme: Disruption, Conviviality, Coterie, (Alternative Critical) Community, Personal Reflections, Conflict/Contradiction, Dissolution, and Influence.

Anonymity, canonicity, and literary value

Textual practice, Feb 12, 2024

This article investigates institutional forces that maintain the focus on canonical authors in Mi... more This article investigates institutional forces that maintain the focus on canonical authors in Middle English studies, despite the ubiquity of anonymity in the Middle English corpus, and despite the extensive critique of the canon that the field has witnessed. It provides a snapshot of the current Middle English canon, surveys publication patterns in sample academic journals in the twenty-first century, examines the ways authorship serves (and anonymity does not) as a critical tool, and shows what anonymous texts might offer to the ongoing assessment of the literariness of Middle English texts. Analysis of the scholarship of two Middle English scholars over the first two decades of the current century demonstrates the challenges and opportunities in developing methods that discern the literariness of anonymous, non-canonical texts. Work in New Formalism and object studies offers possibilities for recognising the literariness of anonymous texts not traditionally considered in terms of their aesthetic or formal features.

The Waning of Middle English Chivalric Romance in ‘The Squyr of Lowe Degre’

Boydell and Brewer eBooks, Dec 31, 2004

Melissa Furrow, Expectations of Romance: The Reception of a Genre in Medieval England. (Studies in Medieval Romance, 11.) Woodbridge, Eng., and Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell and Brewer, 2009. Pp. viii, 264; 2 black-and-white plates. $95

Speculum, Apr 1, 2011

cycle and the ways in which the images might have guided the devotions of the Poor Clares. The th... more cycle and the ways in which the images might have guided the devotions of the Poor Clares. The third chapter is particularly interesting. Arguing that the images would have prompted the reader to engage in "performative devotion" (p. 83), Flora points to the Virgin and her brown-garbed companions as exemplars to the Poor Clares. The extensive narrative of the Virgin's life in the Temple offered a model to the novice, who might have patterned her own spiritual development on that of the young Virgin. Moving to the infancy of Christ, Flora discusses an extraordinary image of the Virgin circumcising the Christ Child (pp. 101-15). She convincingly associates it with the notion of mystical marriage, for nuns were considered brides of Christ; for Catherine of Siena, for instance, the holy foreskin became a mystical wedding band. Less successful is Flora's attempt to argue for a typological association with Zipporah, the wife of Moses, who circumcised her son. While this is an intriguing idea, the evidence offered here, visual and textual, is slight. A wider search of contemporary devotional texts might well corroborate Flora's thesis or otherwise elucidate this curious image. In chapter 4 Flora proposes first that the detailed sequence of the Flight into Egypt offers a spiritual pilgrimage for the cloistered Poor Clares, noting that the Virgin's companions, engaged in sewing and spinning, would have evoked "the community of convent life" (p. 141). Such gendered domestic pursuits also figure in her discussion of holy feasts: no fewer than four images are devoted to the events following Christ's temptation, when he longs for a home-cooked meal and Mary dutifully provides it (p. 144). Equally remarkable are the lengthy sequences detailing the marriage feast at Cana (in thirteen scenes) and the feast of Herod (in seven). The last chapter focuses on Franciscan poverty and Mary's exemplary acts of charity. Particularly interesting is the sequence of the Magi, whose lavish gifts pose a problem for the Holy Family; Mary deftly solves it by giving the offerings to the poor as soon as the Magi make their exit (pp. 198-99). In her conclusion and in appendix 1, Flora proposes the Clarissan convent of San Martino, Pisa, as the likely place of origin of this manuscript; three other appendices deal with traditional topics such as codicology and a discussion of artists' "hands." Generously illustrated throughout, with numerous color plates, The Devout Belief of the Imagination is a valuable resource for scholars of late-medieval Italian art and spirituality. Anne Derbes, Hood College Melissa Furrow, Expectations of Romance: The Reception of a Genre in Medieval England. (Studies in Medieval Romance, 11.) Woodbridge, Eng., and Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell and Brewer, 2009. Pp. viii, 264; 2 black-and-white plates. $95.

Myra Seaman

Uploads

Papers by Myra Seaman

Log In