Book chapter about whiteness, nationhood, sexuality and Ælfric's Old English account of Pope Gre... more Book chapter about whiteness, nationhood, sexuality and Ælfric's Old English account of Pope Gregory the Great's encounter with English slaves.
This essay rethinks Tolkien’s scholarship and fiction in light of his rejection at Oxford of Stua... more This essay rethinks Tolkien’s scholarship and fiction in light of his rejection at Oxford of Stuart Hall, who approached him regarding graduate work on William Langland. I argue that Tolkien’s white medievalism contains his most deeply felt racist formations, which both shaped his fiction and informed his life in a university town populated by West Indian immigrants
Addressing the Crisis: The Stuart Hall Project, 2019
Short piece on how Cultural Studies originator Stuart Hall nearly became a medievalist, and the r... more Short piece on how Cultural Studies originator Stuart Hall nearly became a medievalist, and the relationship between Hall's work and "race" in the medieval period.
postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, 2019
About the striking and disturbing depiction of loud, public women in Thomas of Monmouth's antisem... more About the striking and disturbing depiction of loud, public women in Thomas of Monmouth's antisemitic Life of Willian of Norwich
The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales, 2017
At least since the time of the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred (849-99), a particular idea of social hier... more At least since the time of the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred (849-99), a particular idea of social hierarchy and organization existed in England, that of the three estates or orders. Of uncertain origins, this system emerged during Anglo-Saxon times during a time of upheaval and was used by Alfred-and some 100 years later, by the Anglo-Saxon monk AElfric (955-1010), to consolidate power and authority (Duby 100, 102). While Alfred introduces the three orders as a means of theorizing how to rule successfully, AElfric elaborates upon the idea to defend the rights of churchmen (Duby 101). These early examples demonstrate how writings on the three estates don't so much describe a given or natural ordering of society but rather serve the interests of the authors of those tracts.
Scholars have brought various charges against the myth and symbol school of criticism whose pract... more Scholars have brought various charges against the myth and symbol school of criticism whose practitioners attempt to identify, through archetypal cultural patterns, a distinctive and homogeneous American experience; yet of these charges, none has seemed so persistent as the claim that the myth and symbol approach is incompatible with a responsible historicism. 1 From Christopher Lasch to Russell Reising, Bruce Kuklick to Donald E. Pease, Jr., Americanists have argued persuasively that the myth and symbol critics were perpetrators of "'consensus' history or cold-war criticism" who sought a "common ground, a unified vision, yet ignor[ed] fundamental conflicts and tensions in American culture" (Dickstein 150). 2 According to this thesis, pioneering myth and symbol practitioners such as Perry Miller and Henry Nash Smith found in American literature and culture less a complex engagement with some of the more divisive issues in American life than a repository of national archetypes (the city on the hill, an errand into the wilderness, a virgin land) that testified to the extraordinary nature of the American character and the American nation. As Pease has recently put it, those postwar critics used literature to imagine a "spectacular counterworld [that] replaced the vexing facts of the real world with invented characters and events that were compatible with collective social hopes and prejudices" (163). That this mythic "counterworld" not only offered an escape from or an imaginative resolution to pressing social problems, but also helped legitimate American imperial violence in the name of a consecrated national mission is perhaps the most tragic insight offered by critics of this interpretive method.
Book chapter about whiteness, nationhood, sexuality and Ælfric's Old English account of Pope Gre... more Book chapter about whiteness, nationhood, sexuality and Ælfric's Old English account of Pope Gregory the Great's encounter with English slaves.
This essay rethinks Tolkien’s scholarship and fiction in light of his rejection at Oxford of Stua... more This essay rethinks Tolkien’s scholarship and fiction in light of his rejection at Oxford of Stuart Hall, who approached him regarding graduate work on William Langland. I argue that Tolkien’s white medievalism contains his most deeply felt racist formations, which both shaped his fiction and informed his life in a university town populated by West Indian immigrants
Addressing the Crisis: The Stuart Hall Project, 2019
Short piece on how Cultural Studies originator Stuart Hall nearly became a medievalist, and the r... more Short piece on how Cultural Studies originator Stuart Hall nearly became a medievalist, and the relationship between Hall's work and "race" in the medieval period.
postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, 2019
About the striking and disturbing depiction of loud, public women in Thomas of Monmouth's antisem... more About the striking and disturbing depiction of loud, public women in Thomas of Monmouth's antisemitic Life of Willian of Norwich
The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales, 2017
At least since the time of the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred (849-99), a particular idea of social hier... more At least since the time of the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred (849-99), a particular idea of social hierarchy and organization existed in England, that of the three estates or orders. Of uncertain origins, this system emerged during Anglo-Saxon times during a time of upheaval and was used by Alfred-and some 100 years later, by the Anglo-Saxon monk AElfric (955-1010), to consolidate power and authority (Duby 100, 102). While Alfred introduces the three orders as a means of theorizing how to rule successfully, AElfric elaborates upon the idea to defend the rights of churchmen (Duby 101). These early examples demonstrate how writings on the three estates don't so much describe a given or natural ordering of society but rather serve the interests of the authors of those tracts.
Scholars have brought various charges against the myth and symbol school of criticism whose pract... more Scholars have brought various charges against the myth and symbol school of criticism whose practitioners attempt to identify, through archetypal cultural patterns, a distinctive and homogeneous American experience; yet of these charges, none has seemed so persistent as the claim that the myth and symbol approach is incompatible with a responsible historicism. 1 From Christopher Lasch to Russell Reising, Bruce Kuklick to Donald E. Pease, Jr., Americanists have argued persuasively that the myth and symbol critics were perpetrators of "'consensus' history or cold-war criticism" who sought a "common ground, a unified vision, yet ignor[ed] fundamental conflicts and tensions in American culture" (Dickstein 150). 2 According to this thesis, pioneering myth and symbol practitioners such as Perry Miller and Henry Nash Smith found in American literature and culture less a complex engagement with some of the more divisive issues in American life than a repository of national archetypes (the city on the hill, an errand into the wilderness, a virgin land) that testified to the extraordinary nature of the American character and the American nation. As Pease has recently put it, those postwar critics used literature to imagine a "spectacular counterworld [that] replaced the vexing facts of the real world with invented characters and events that were compatible with collective social hopes and prejudices" (163). That this mythic "counterworld" not only offered an escape from or an imaginative resolution to pressing social problems, but also helped legitimate American imperial violence in the name of a consecrated national mission is perhaps the most tragic insight offered by critics of this interpretive method.
Department of English 452 EPB Office Hours: Tu 3-5 pm; W 2:30-3:30 pm Mailbox: 310 EPB and by app... more Department of English 452 EPB Office Hours: Tu 3-5 pm; W 2:30-3:30 pm Mailbox: 310 EPB and by appointment DEO: [email protected] EMAIL POLICY: emails sent to me during office hours should receive a response within an hour. I will respond to emails sent during business hours (9:00am -5:00pm) Monday -Friday within 24 hours. I will respond to emails sent during the weekend on the following Monday. Please address me (e.g., "Dear Professor Lavezzo") when sending emails and please also write in complete sentences.
Digital project that reimagines medieval Jewish-Christian relations through innovative cartograph... more Digital project that reimagines medieval Jewish-Christian relations through innovative cartographies.
To be sure, cannibalism is but a starting point in Empire; in a Jamesonian vein (the book's ... more To be sure, cannibalism is but a starting point in Empire; in a Jamesonian vein (the book's title tropes on "Magical Narratives"), Heng sees romance as responding to a variety of social issues. In this far-reaching study of immense scope (from the 11 ,h through the 15,h ...
Medieval Cheshire is enjoying a scholarly moment. Two decades after Michael Bennett's groundbreak... more Medieval Cheshire is enjoying a scholarly moment. Two decades after Michael Bennett's groundbreaking work on middling class aspiration, critical work both in print and on the web is flourishing. 1 Such projects as John Bowers's book on the Pearl poet and Richard II's Cheshire connections, Jane Laughton's history of medieval Chester, and the web project headed by Catherine Clarke have all done much to enhance our appreciation and understanding of the rich sociocultural history of the region. 2 Robert Barrett's book is a significant and welcome contribution to that burgeoning work. With its longue durée approach, lucid prose, clarity of argument, and telling readings of texts from a variety of genres, Barrett's book appeals to anyone interested not only in Cheshire but also broader topics including urban studies, regionalism, drama, periodization, and nationhood. In his introduction, Barrett lays out his stakes, stressing how the long historical purview of his analysis problematizes the idea of a sharp break between the Middle Ages and early modernity. Barrett claims that by focusing on a region we find instances of regional exceptionalism, nationalism, and internationalism emerging throughout the period of over 450 years that he covers. Barrett emphasizes the geographic (i.e., Cheshire's border location) and administrative (i.e., Cheshire's palatinate status) qualities that informed the regional affiliations that emerge in Cheshire cultural produc-For permission to reuse, please contact
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