The term ’empire’ is frequently applied retrospectively by historians to historical trans-cultural political entities that are notable either for their geographic breadth, unprecedented expansionary ambitions, or extensive political hegemony. Yet the use of the terminology of empire in historical studies is often ill-defined, as exemplified by the…[Read more]

Gesta regum Anglorum, written by William of Malmesbury in the twelfth century, is a key source for the life of the tenth-century Anglo-Saxon king, Æthelstan (924–939). Contemporary narrative histories provide little detail relating to Æthelstan’s kingship, and the account of Gesta regum Anglorum purports to grant an unparalleled insight into his l…[Read more]

The practical necessity of sight to effective participation in Anglo-Saxon life is reflected in the multifaceted depictions of punitive blinding in late Anglo-Saxon literature. As a motif of empowerment or disempowerment, acts of blinding permeate the histories and hagiographies of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and each narrative mode…[Read more]

In 1016 the young Danish prince who was to become Cnut the Great, King of England, Denmark, and Norway, laid siege to the city of London as part of a program of conquest that would see him crowned as King of England by 1017. This millennial year is an appropriate time to reflect on the consequences of London’s defiance as a city that was rapidly…[Read more]

In this essay, I examine two widely divergent instances of what I understand to be a compulsive and racialized-sexualized violence against women whose bodies have been figured as “foreign”/Eastern (and even, as animal and barbaric) threats within collective national bodies: the real case of a massacre in the modern state of Gujarat in southwestern…[Read more]

Em 1958, Cleonice Berardinelli apresentou sua tese de livre-docência Poesia e Poética de Fernando Pessoa, que permanece inédita. Trata-se da primeira tese escrita sobre Fernando Pessoa no Brasil, e a segunda no mundo. Em 1958, a obra de Fernando Pessoa conhecida limitava-se aos textos que o poeta tinha publicado em vida e aos volumes ed…[Read more]

Da obra genial de Fernando Pessoa, centenas de páginas permanecem desconhecidas. Ao investigar o espólio pessoano, Carlos Pittella e Jerónimo Pizarro resgatam da obscuridade textos (poemas, cartas, anotações, listas, artigos de imprensa) e desenhos (esquemas, caricaturas, cartas astrológicas) que dão testemunho de como a literatura pode mudar…[Read more]

Quem é Fausto? O que é o Fausto de Fernando Pessoa? Porque é que o Fausto de Pessoa existe, se já havia outros, como as obras‑primas de Christopher Marlowe e de Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Por‑que merece a versão pessoana ser lida ou relida? E como deve ser lida: como peça em cinco actos, ou como constelação de centenas de fragmentos? Se entendid…[Read more]

“Fernando Pessoa is not easy to get to know. Even during his lifetime, his friends remarked on a certain quicksilver quality about him that made it appear as though he was always slipping through their hands […]. We join him in his search for self-identity. Perhaps because we feel it is a search for our own self-identity. Or it may be a game. Or…[Read more]

O presente trabalho apresenta o ensaio fotográfico Pessoas com Relações com Pessoa, através de 12 dos 42 retratos de recitadores de sonetos pessoanos que constituem o corpo de uma futura exposição. As fotos são organizadas em quatro trípticos fotográficos, cada um deles sendo precedido do soneto respectivo em edição crítica.…[Read more]

Presentation of a 15th century book-binding with a trick-lock from Munich.

Article on the materiality of archival film prints and how this materiality can be duplicated on new projection prints and produce a historical sensation.

En la más reciente edición y estudio de la Carajicomedia, su editor llama la atención sobre un aspecto determinado de esta obra, y por extensión, a todas las sátiras a mitad de camino entre lo burlesco y lo erótico: se establece la necesidad de explorar «more fully the political complexity of the period; the reasons that its authors may have h…[Read more]

“The Other Close at Hand: Gerald of Wales and the ‘Marvels of the West,’” in The Monstrous Middle Ages, eds. Robert Mills and Bettina Bildhauer (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003), 97-112

“Inconceivable Beasts: The Wonders of the East in the Beowulf Manuscript,” with Susan Kim, in Dark Reflections, Monstrous Reflections: Essays on the Monster in Culture, ed. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn (Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press E-Book, 2008)

“The Exposed Body and the Gendered Blemmye: Reading the Wonders of the East,” with Susan Kim, Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, v. 3, The History of Sexuality in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. by Albrecht Classen and Marilyn Sandidge (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008)

“Digital Mappaemundi: Changing the Way We Work with Medieval World Maps,” Peregrinations: The Official Publication of the International Society for the Study of Pilgrimage Art, with Martin Foys, vol. 2:3 (Summer 2009)

The dominant literate culture of early medieval England – male, European, and Christian – often represented itself through comparison to exotic beings and monsters, in traditions developed from native mythologies, and Classical and Biblical sources. So pervasive was this reflexive identification that the language of the monstrous occurs not onl…[Read more]

“Anglo-Saxon Frames of Reference: Spatial Relations on the Page and in the World,” Different Visions: A Journal of New Perspectives on Medieval Art, vol. 2 (2009), with Susan Kim

The dominant literate culture of early medieval England – male, European, and Christian – often represented itself through comparison to exotic beings and mon- sters, in traditions developed from native mythologies, and Classical and Biblical sources. So pervasive was this reflexive identification that the language of the mon- strous occurs not…[Read more]