Form and Foreskin: Medieval Narratives of Circumcision

A. W. Strouse

Published by Fordham University Press 2021

Form and Foreskin

Medieval Narratives of Circumcision

A. W. Strouse

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780823294770

Overview
Contents

About this book

Why did Saint Augustine ask God to “circumcise [his] lips”? Why does Sir Gawain cut off the Green Knight’s head on the Feast of the Circumcision? Is Chaucer’s Wife of Bath actually—as an early glossator figures her—a foreskin? And why did Ezra Pound claim that he had incubated The Waste Land inside of his uncut member? In this little book, A. W. Strouse excavates a poetics of the foreskin, uncovering how Patristic theologies of circumcision came to structure medieval European literary aesthetics. Following the writings of Saint Paul, “circumcision” and “uncircumcision” become key terms for theorizing language—especially the dichotomies between the mere text and its extended exegesis, between brevity and longwindedness, between wisdom and folly. Form and Foreskin looks to three works: a peculiar story by Saint Augustine about a boy with the long foreskin; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; and Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale. By examining literary scenes of cutting and stretching, Strouse exposes how Patristic treatments of circumcision queerly govern medieval poetics.

Strouse uses foreskin and circumcision as a means of introducing novel, queer readings of great Medieval authors such as Augustine and Chaucer.

Author / Editor information

Strouse A. W. :

A.W. Strouse is a poet and an adjunct professor of medieval literature, as well as the author of many scholarly articles, poems, and art projects.A.W. Strouse is a poet and an adjunct professor of medieval literature, as well as the author of many scholarly articles, poems, and art projects.

Reviews

Form and Foreskin is a new, original, and compelling experiment in close reading. Looking through the lens of circumcision at pastoral literature and poetry in Latin, Middle English and English, Strouse writes in a dynamic, engaging manner that will be of interest especially to scholars of Middle English literature and those who work on queer studies and studies of masculinity.

Form and Foreskin is accessible, fun, and provocative … Strouse’s linked, essay-like chapters engage wonderfully odd stories and include many incisive new analyses.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Gospel According to the Foreskin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2. Saint Augustine and the Boy with the Long Foreskin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
3. Nicking Sir Gawain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
4. The Foreskin of Marriage Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
Coda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 144
Keywords: Circumcision; Saint Paul; Saint Augustine; Chaucer; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; medieval; poetry; foreskin; theology; queer theory

eBook

Published: April 13, 2021
ISBN: 9780823294770