Research Catalog

Title

The maudlin impression : English literary images of Mary Magdalene, 1550-1700 / Patricia Badir.

Author

Badir, Patricia, 1976-

Publication

Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press, c2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xix, 300 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

"The conventional image of Mary Magdalene tends to be a composite of four separate figures from the Gospels: Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus; Mary Magdalene, from whom Jesus cast out devils; the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus's head; and the unnamed sinner who washes his feet with her hair. She was also often conflated with other women such as Mary the Hermit. Many Reformation writers tried to separate or recombine various elements, according to shifting notions of religious experience. Badir (English literature, Univ. of British Columbia) offers a literary history of this dynamic trope. Depictions range from Mary as a symbol of the reformation of a corrupt church and the only one to recognize the divinity of Christ to Mary as a legitimization of the courtesan. In this well-researched and clearly written book, Badir draws on poetry, homilies, plays, sermons, and paintings. VERDICT A valuable contribution for scholars of Renaissance literature, this will also be accessible to serious nonspecialists curious about the figure of Mary Magdalene. T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah, GA"--Library Journal Reviews.

Series Statement

Reformations

Uniform Title

• Project Muse UPCC books
• Reformations.

Subject

• Mary Magdalene, Saint > In literature
• English literature > Early modern, 1500-1700 > History and criticism
• Christian literature, English > History and criticism
• Idols and images in literature
• Iconoclasm in literature
• Christianity and literature > Great Britain > History > 16th century
• Christianity and literature > Great Britain > History > 17th century

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction : Creeping After the Cart -- Ch. 1. Look of Love -- Ch. 2. Touch Me Not -- Ch. 3. Task of Beauty -- Ch. 4. Penance in a Sheet -- Ch. 5. She's a Nice Piece of Work -- Postscript : A Something Else Thereby.

ISBN

• 9780268022150 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 0268022151 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2009027702

OCLC

351313237

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library