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  • Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred by Barbara Newman
  • Huw Grange
Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred. By Barbara Newman. (Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies.) Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. xvi + 400 pp., ill.

Few medievalists today would consider ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’ to be utterly irreconcilable binaries, but with her concept of ‘crossover’ Barbara Newman equips us with a highly versatile exegetical tool — or, rather, a set of tools — with which to theorize and bridge the divide. As in the modern music industry, ‘crossover’ here does not constitute a separate genre in itself but refers to the modes in which diverse domains may meet and merge. For Newman, the default category in the Middle Ages is always the sacred, but it interacts with the secular in numerous productive ways in medieval texts, the pair behaving like water and oil one moment, like water and wine the next. In her opening chapter Newman lays out her theoretical wares in a characteristically lucid and appealing fashion. Rather than adopt a reading strategy that privileges the pious (à la Duncan Robertson), or embrace a subversive model that favours the profane, where sacred and secular converge we would do well to exercise ‘double judgment’, allowing multiple meanings to emerge instead of pursuing an elusive final verdict. Subsequent chapters are case studies of works in Latin, English, and (chiefly) French that put this hermeneutical strategy of both/and into action. First to receive the crossover treatment is Arthurian romance: [End Page 235] Newman demonstrates the propensity of these texts, with their pagan motifs and Christian morals, to yield both sacred and secular readings. Chapter 3 places Marguerite Porete’s Mirouer des simples ames in the context of secular literary forms, exploring how Marguerite draws on the vocabulary of love lyric and the Roman de la rose for her mystical purposes. Three less well-known (but nonetheless captivating) works form the basis of Chapter 4, which investigates the parodic adaptation of sacred texts to very different ends, both humorous and horrifying. A final chapter sees sacred and secular come together in a single author, as Newman reads René of Anjou’s takes on divine and human love in light of each other (looking at text and image in tandem). The strengths of Medieval Crossover are manifold. Newman navigates adroitly from justly canonical to undeservedly neglected literary works (the latter appended to the volume in translation). She is an expert expositor of academic debate and draws on previous scholars’ work critically and yet generously. Her writing, moreover, while steadfastly erudite, retains a lightness of touch that is deliciously engaging. This is essential reading for students of history, religion, literature, and cultural studies, with sensitive English translations catering for readers who lack proficiency in Latin or Medieval French. Like those medieval texts that open themselves up to ‘double judgment’, Medieval Crossover is guaranteed to provoke further debate and delight.

Huw Grange
University of Kent
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