Research in Progress — Masha Raskolnikov

Body and Soul How Does Medieval English Literature Fit in the 21st Century? A CONVERSATION WITH MASHA RASKOLNIKOV, ENGLISH What makes a career promising for you here at Cornell? sacrificing traditional forms, that it is crucial to let English literature I teach medieval English literature in combination with feminist grow as a field but to also find a way to teach the old stuff, the studies and critical theory, fields that are not often combined, canon, in new ways—to transform it and to give new groups of although I believe that they need one another to thrive. Cornell has people access to it. a long, proud tradition in medieval studies, and I am very honored to teach here. In the previous generation, it was famous as a bas - Why is medieval literature important? tion of traditional philological criticism, the study of what medieval I have to object to this question! While medieval literature is most literature can tell us about linguistic history, and also of patristics, certainly important, it is also beautiful for its own sake. The experi - the history of the church fathers. In fact, my very office used to be ence of reading literature because it is beautiful is crucial to the the office of Robert Kaske, who was an enormous, internationally- education of any human being. It does not have to be useful, and it known presence in medieval studies. It was something else to take does not have to get you a job. Sometimes students are “forced” by over that office, to physically occupy his former space, although schedules or requirements to take classes in early periods, and they he’s been deceased for quite a few years now! discover—and this is one of those discoveries I am always midwifing— how simply beautiful the poetry and the drama are. That said, I Cornell’s English department as a whole has a tradition of acceptance would insist that the Middle Ages is such a historically distant period and inclusion. When the so-called “culture wars” started in the 1980s, that learning to study its culture thoughtfully and to read its works at other places there was a fight about whether it was worth teaching critically prepares students to encounter, process, and comprehend the “old stuff,” like medieval literature—or the folks who taught the challenging new information, honing those critical thinking, reading, old stuff would oppose the inclusion of works by women, people of and writing skills that are at the heart of a solid education. color, or Third World writers because they didn’t fit with a traditional English program. Here at Cornell, however, literary studies always What do you research? remained strong and cohesive. My colleagues knew that the cur - One of the reasons I became a medievalist is because I am interested riculum had to make room for new fields of scholarship but without in origins—where we come from. One can have a biological question Research in Progress about origins or a physics question about everyday people in the Middle Ages would it. My interest is where our “selves” come have imagined their selves—as beings whose from—our current idea of what the self is— physical and spiritual needs were always which may sound like a question for fundamentally at odds with each other. I psychologists, but often ends up being a look at these works and ask, How did we, matter for poets. At the basis of this inquiry and let’s just take the Western tradition is the premise that, if we know where we here, actually become this thing called a come from, we have the freedom to change “human being”? Why do we imagine our - where we are going. We become less bound selves as beings that are split between body to the things that are given to us when we and soul, the carnal and the spiritual? Some can go back and analyze them. My particular feminist theory would say that splitting M a Graduate students need careers, and they still t t h e w F study medieval literature … Because there are o n d e u r still interesting things to say. / C U focus of study is one that runs through all body and soul and not loving the body is of Western history and remains of primary the cardinal sin, the first sin of Western cul - interest to modern theorists, particularly ture. I look at how this split came about. feminist theorists: how my body relates to “me.” I study this by examining medieval Often in these debates I study, the body is debates between the body and the soul and imagined as female and the soul is imag - other writings that rely on personifying ined as male. I investigate how that works parts of the self in order to explain what it’s and changes over time. It is not always made of. body = female. Sometimes when it is not, there is no female at all. In the early poems, How did you become interested in this area of all of us have a male soul. £ I am interested in origins—where we come research? from. One can have a biological question As a graduate student I started doing femi - So, that’s my book: it’s called Body against about origins or a physics question about it. nist theory and, in doing so, found myself Soul: Gender and Sowlehele in Middle My interest is where our “selves” come always interested in origins, going back and English Allegory . Its publication date is July from—our current idea of what the self is. then further back to earlier and earlier 2009 from Ohio State University Press, as texts, often encountering works that are part of a new series they’re starting called £ My premise is that literatures and cultures just fundamentally sexist. The man needs to Interventions: New Studies in Medieval structure our “selves.” I explore how be in charge of the woman the way the soul Culture, edited by a scholar I admire, Ethan medieval people conceived the content of needs to be in charge of the body—that Knapp of Ohio State. I’m honored to be the who a person is and how they organized and cliché gets repeated over and over again in first book in the series! In the book, I explore disciplined it. all kinds of cultural traditions. But I found how medieval people conceived the content it interesting. Where did this come from? of who a person is, and how they organized How far back does it go? And, still, a lot of and disciplined it. £ This is fundamental: how did we become human beings in the Western tradition my work and teaching asks, What is the logic of this sexism? How can we unmake Tell us more about your book. where people are split between body and it? Does our modern idea of the self have to In the subtitle of the book I use this very odd soul? rely on sexist assumptions in order to exist? word, “sowlehele” (pronounced “soul heal”): it confused everybody to whom I showed the £ Often in this work, the body is imagined as When you look at origins, what specifically are book’s cover! Sowlehele is a medieval term. female and the soul is imagined as male. I you looking at in literature? It shows up as part of the title of at least two trace this. I investigate how it works and My favorite part of my current book is medieval manuscripts, where it seems to changes over time. where I examine several fairly obscure describe how the manuscripts should be 13th-century debates between the body and used—in order to help heal the soul. My book the soul. Not a lot of people have studied doesn’t take on everything in these manu - these, so there’s room for me to say new scripts. One of them, the so-called Vernon things and to make discoveries by examin - manuscript, is huge. It weighs more than fifty ing them. These works speak to how pounds! But it looks at how the idea of the 28 Fascinating! soul, as a being distinct from the body, is implications is one associated with Piers interested in what knowledge is and how the used in some of the works intended to heal Plowman , which was actually quoted from in “common sense” we have today was created the soul. This goes back to why I think med- the 1381 Peasant Revolt. Poor people staged in centuries past. But they do not yet know ieval literature is important: how it bridges an uprising because things were hard, and where to ask their questions. What am I going any divide between didactic and entertaining, the laws of the land were strongly against to do with the modern theory to push it healing and damaging, all at once. them. The rebels seem to have included lit - forward? What is going to be my archive? erate people who had read Piers Plowman , We used to have great debates in literary as well as people who had heard this book I try to get the students who come with classes about the purpose of literature— read aloud. We know this because they hard questions and who are not sure where didactic or entertaining—and the debate quoted it, and when asked who their leader to go to ask those questions. I tell them that began in medieval lit. was, they listed Piers Plowman as one of in the Middle Ages, these questions are wide It did! Chaucer poses that question at the the group of leaders.

Load more