The historical anthropology, literary culture and performance traditions of Medieval Europe.
An annotated bibliography of my work
My first book (At Play in the Tavern: Signs, Coins and Bodies in the Middle Ages, Univ. of Michigan Press, 1999) examines the issue of "profit" in medieval French culture, as a challenge to models of community and interaction based on the notion of "charity." The book investigates medieval theories of justice, economics and social organization within the theological tradition, and then considers how alternative models based in the realities of cities, merchants, markets and a profit economy challenged these theories, with the concept of usury being a key discursive arena for debate and conflict. I argue that the tavern was a key site for both the economic and literary exploration of notions of usury and profit, and show that the transformations of medieval urban culture in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which were iconigraphically centered in the tavern, can be understood as more general challenges to neo-Platonic and Augustinian theories of the sign and representation as well as the relation of the individual to the community. In response, the literary culture of the tavern proposed a model of "play" which incorporated notions of profit, usury and bodily pleasure. Key texts examined include the "Le Jeu de St. Nicolas," the Goliard poets, "Courtois d'Arras," the Fabliaux, Rutebeuf, and the "Le Jeu de la Feuillee."
My second book (The Medieval Warrior Aristocracy: Gifts, Violence, Performance and the Sacred, B.S. Brewer, 2007) examines the warrior aristocracy of Western Europe - France, Germany, Spain, and Norman incursions in England and Italy - from an anthropological perspective. Using literary sources (epic, chanson de geste) as well as gift charters and historical chronicles, I focus on the practice of gift-giving and the notion of the hero as complementary tropes for understanding the bases and limits of social organization among the warrior aristocracy. I argue that gift-giving and violence can both be understood as strategic forms of identity formation, based upon reciprocity, within the broader notion of performativity. The fundamental rationale of these practices, however- and that of performativity generally - must be understood in the context of a notion of the sacred. This anchors and legitimates practices of reciprocity in a desire to attain a transcendant, sacred "kept" which would escape the vagaries of performance and reciprocity and provide a stable, unchallengeable identity. The hero can then be understood as a liminal figure who seeks - via performance - to attain a status where he gains access to the transcendent sacred, beyond the give and take of the world. Key texts examined include "La Chanson de Roland," "El Poema de Mio Cid," "Raoul de Cambrai," "Das Nibelungenlied," "Le Couronnement de Louis," and several Norman chronicles, especially those on William the Congueror in England and Robert Guiscard in Italy.