GERD romance?
Mar. 29th, 2009 09:33 amSo the AAAS has this nifty feature called "Science Cite" where you can set up searches with specific key words and you'll get email alerts with lists of all the recent peer-reviewed articles containing those key words. It's really handy, although you get the occasional random hit.
Case in point: I've been tracking articles about gastroesophageal reflux disease for a paper in MNT. For totally obscure reasons known only to Medievalists with heartburn, the last batch of article notifications contained this gem:
Asceticism, Gallantry, or Polygamy? Alexander's Relationship with Women as a Topos in Medieval Romance Traditions
Sabine Müller
The legend of the ancient Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great was infused with new life in the Middle Ages. Medieval literature cast him as a popular subject, a moral exemplum and a model to be emulated by the nobility. One important aspect of this legend was his relationship with women that can be read as a marker of the different representations of the Alexander figure and their cultural contexts. This study examines the Alexander legend as it was reinvented in three major medieval texts, written by the French cleric Gautier de Châtillon, the German writer Johann Hartlieb and the Persian poet Nizami. While Christian literary representa-tions reinvent Alexander as an ascetic, chaste figure, exalting fidelity to one woman, his wife Roxane and alternatively as an ideal of gallantry and courtliness, the Persian romance tradition portrayed him as an energetic, polygamous lover. In each case, his attitude towards women is deployed as a symbol of his political attributes.
OK, so what does all this have to do with GERD??? Did Alexander the Great have acid reflux? Does energetic polygamy cause erosive esophagitis? Your guess is as good as mine, folks.
Case in point: I've been tracking articles about gastroesophageal reflux disease for a paper in MNT. For totally obscure reasons known only to Medievalists with heartburn, the last batch of article notifications contained this gem:
Asceticism, Gallantry, or Polygamy? Alexander's Relationship with Women as a Topos in Medieval Romance Traditions
Sabine Müller
The legend of the ancient Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great was infused with new life in the Middle Ages. Medieval literature cast him as a popular subject, a moral exemplum and a model to be emulated by the nobility. One important aspect of this legend was his relationship with women that can be read as a marker of the different representations of the Alexander figure and their cultural contexts. This study examines the Alexander legend as it was reinvented in three major medieval texts, written by the French cleric Gautier de Châtillon, the German writer Johann Hartlieb and the Persian poet Nizami. While Christian literary representa-tions reinvent Alexander as an ascetic, chaste figure, exalting fidelity to one woman, his wife Roxane and alternatively as an ideal of gallantry and courtliness, the Persian romance tradition portrayed him as an energetic, polygamous lover. In each case, his attitude towards women is deployed as a symbol of his political attributes.
OK, so what does all this have to do with GERD??? Did Alexander the Great have acid reflux? Does energetic polygamy cause erosive esophagitis? Your guess is as good as mine, folks.