Book Launch: "Love and Anti-Judaism in Medieval English Romance"

(Manchester University Press 2025) is a new examination of medieval romance for the questions it poses of the most significant events in Christian history. Did the life of Christ change the nature of love? How could the sacrifice of Abraham and Isaac, which did not happen, prefigure that of Christ, which did? Can reactions to sexual violence approach the responsibility demanded by sacrifice?

Providing new readings of the richly-studied romances Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sir Orfeo, the book also investigates Sir Gowther and Sir Amadace for their sophisticated responses to these theological questions. The book argues that romance explores difficulties in the Christian practice of reading the Hebrew Bible as a prefiguration of the life of Christ and the history initiated by him. Such a mode of biblical reading is foundational to medieval anti-Judaism, with Jewish interpretations accused of being incomplete or incorrect because they did not depend upon Christ. Focusing on the Song of Songs, Love and anti-Judaism demonstrates that medieval exegesis often depended upon the figure of Synagoga, the personification of Jewish faith and community in the Christian imagination, for the construction of Christ as a lover who sacrificed himself for his bride.

Such dependence enabled medieval romance to build world-shaking ambivalence into its portrayals of love and sexual violence. An examination of anti-Judaism as a discourse of violence and desire that could be turned inwardly to expose the irresolution in Christianity, this book demonstrates that medieval romance reanimates biblical sacrifice in the vulnerabilities of love.

Format:

Professor Carol Richardson and Dr Kate Ash-Irisarri will join author Dr Hope Doherty-Harrison to discuss the book. The book launch will take place in a hybrid format, with attendance both in-person and online (via Zoom Webinar). The launch will be followed by a drinks reception.

This is a free event, which means we overbook to allow for no-shows and to avoid empty seats. While we generally do not have to turn people away, this does mean we cannot guarantee everyone a place. Admission is on a first come, first served basis.

Accessibility:

For in-person attendees, this event will take place at IASH, 2 Hope Park Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9NW. Please see a map here: https://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/location

The Seminar Room is on the first floor, and unfortunately IASH does not have a lift. If you have mobility issues and would like to discuss access, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible.

Biography:

Dr Hope Doherty-Harrison works on medieval literature and iconography. Hope’s primary research and teaching interests include medieval Christian constructions of stigma, particularly regarding anti-Judaism, mental illness, and gender; biblical interpretation and retelling; typological associations and oppositions; and the often unpredictable relationship between iconographic compositions and textual sources. Love and anti-Judaism in medieval English romance: Typologies of violence and desire is her first monograph. After growing up in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, Hope studied for her BA and MPhil at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where she was awarded the Margot Heinemann Prize for Shakespeare in 2016, and the Christopher MacGregor Memorial Award for English Literature in 2018. Hope obtained her PhD from Durham University in 2022, funded by a Durham Doctoral Studentship, with a thesis entitled ‘The Virgin Mary Between Ecclesia and Synagoga: Typology, Sin and Anti-Judaism in Medieval English Literature, c. 1200-1500’. Hope worked as a Teaching Fellow in Medieval History of Art at the University of Edinburgh from 2022-24, and was Centre for Research Collections Fellow at IASH in 2024, during which she wrote the manuscript for Love and anti-Judaism in medieval English romance. Following a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Yale University in London, Hope returned to History of Art at Edinburgh as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Spring 2025 to work on her second monograph project, The Living Judas in Medieval Text and Image, which is now under contract with Cornell University Press.

Host or Publisher Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities