Overview
Love and anti-Judaism is a new examination of medieval romance for the questions it poses of the most significant events in Christian history. Providing new readings of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Orfeo, Sir Gowther and Sir Amadace, the book argues that romance explores depictions of love-and the sacrifices it may necessitate-in the Hebrew Bible, especially where they do not easily fit into interpretations asserting that this history must prefigure Christ and the crucifixion. An examination of anti-Judaism as a discourse of violence and desire that could be turned inwardly to expose the irresolution in Christianity, this book will provoke new investigations into the religious crises of medieval romance.
Full Product Details
Author: Hope Doherty-Harrison (Teaching Fellow in Medieval History of Art)
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 13.80cm
, Height: 2.10cm
, Length: 21.60cm
Weight: 0.555kg
ISBN: 9781526183170
ISBN 10: 152618317
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 02 September 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Not yet available, will be POD
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon it's release. This is a print on demand item which is still yet to be released.
Reviews
An immensely learned and thought-provoking exploration of the connections between love and religion in medieval romance, Doherty-Harrison’s approach takes the reader beyond conventional readings and opens up a rich world of theological complexity and ambivalence. - Jacqueline Tasioulas, Professor of Medieval English & Scots, Clare College, University of Cambridge This exhilarating study of Middle English romance investigates the genre’s complex attachments to Christian typology, and specifically to commentary on the Song of Songs and Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac. In a series of nuanced and sophisticated readings, Doherty-Harrison proves medieval romances to be 'vivid narratives of typological confusion,' which use 'medieval Christianity’s most powerful normative structure…typological anti-Judaism' to explore ambivalent individual relations of love, violence, sacrifice, and doubt. This bracing, highly original book will surely transform the way we understand the relationship between Christian theology and courtly romance. - Emily Steiner, Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania -- .
'An immensely learned and thought-provoking exploration of the connections between love and religion in medieval romance, Doherty-Harrison’s approach takes the reader beyond conventional readings and opens up a rich world of theological complexity and ambivalence.' - Jacqueline Tasioulas, Professor of Medieval English & Scots, Clare College, University of Cambridge -- .
Author Information
Hope Doherty-Harrison is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Edinburgh
