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Books by Gillian Adler

Research paper thumbnail of 'Introduction' to Chaucer and the Ethics of Time

University of Wales Press, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 3, 'Time and the Planets' (Adler and Strohm)

Alle Thyng Hath Tyme, 2023

Papers by Gillian Adler

Research paper thumbnail of Fearing Fame from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Research paper thumbnail of Visionary Metaphors: Sight, Sickness, and Space in Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy and Julian of Norwich's Showings. Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 46.1 (2020): 53-70.

Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of "Writing History, Writing Trauma" : The Rape of Igerna in the Medieval Brut Narratives. Medieval Feminist Forum 56.3 (2021): 48-72.

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality, 2021

n the medieval Brut tradition, King Arthur' s birth takes place under the marvelous circumstances... more n the medieval Brut tradition, King Arthur' s birth takes place under the marvelous circumstances of prophecy, supernatural intervention, and disguise. With only slight variations across the tradition, the plot sequence begins with a feast in London, where the British king Uther Pendragon becomes enamored of Igerna, the wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. Considering tactical approaches to achieving his desire, Uther consults with his cherished household knight Ulfin of Ridcaradoc. He ultimately benefits from the eminent magician Merlin, who temporarily disguises Uther as Gorlois as a way to fool Igerna into receiving him. Through the illusion of corporeal mimesis, Uther successfully enters Igerna' s bedchamber at Tintagel Castle and has sexual intercourse with her. Popular Brut narratives, including Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, as well as versions by the French romancer Wace and the English historiographer Laȝamon, present this magic bedtrick as the spectacular prerequisite to the birth of Arthur, rex quondam rexque futurus. Combining Merlin's wondrous devices and Uther's theatrical performance, the scene, as these historical writings present it, features the Virgilian themes of genealogy, prophecy, and eros. 2

Research paper thumbnail of Dante's Cato: Libertà and the Dialectic of Empires in the Purgatorio

Author(s): Adler, Gillian | Abstract: This paper reads Dante’s call for imperial renovatio in the... more Author(s): Adler, Gillian | Abstract: This paper reads Dante’s call for imperial renovatio in the earliest moments of the Purgatorio. Dante’s project allegorizes the search for an ideal temporal empire through the transfiguration of the wayward soul, and uses Cato, the historical figure guarding Purgatory’s terraces, to articulate the sense of urgency with which the empire must be purified of injustice. This paper contends that Cato, a symbol of the political and moral freedom crucial to Dante’s theory of an ideal imperium, is a function of the Commedia’s broader negotiation with contradictory Virgilian and Augustinian historiographical paradigms. Deeply invested in European reform, Dante condemns a past of imperial failure while anticipating spiritual-political redemption. Medieval forms of governance within the Monarchia inform my reading of liberta in Dante’s middle canticle.

Research paper thumbnail of Female Intercession and the Shaping of Male Heroism in the Roman d'Eneas and Le chevalier au lion. Medieval Feminist Forum (2013)

or some time now, feminist literary scholarship has demonstrated how the leading female figures o... more or some time now, feminist literary scholarship has demonstrated how the leading female figures of medieval French romance are often constructed to emphasize the heroism of the male protagonist. 1 While romance challenges the model of male homosociality of the chanson de geste by expanding the discourses of heterosexual desire and by recognizing female desire, in particular, women gain prominence in this narrative form because femininity becomes the "metaphor" which male authors newly use to develop male subjectivity. As Simon Gaunt writes, "romance does not 'discover' women, or femininity, or the individual, it constructs models of them." 3 In the anonymous Roman d'Enéas and Chrétien de Troyes's Le chevalier au lion, the female protagonists Dido and Laudine, respectively, become passive objects upon which male authors effectively define the valor and prowess of male figures. Both of these female figures possess the authority and territory to rule, and yet they transform into helpless victims of love, rendered incapable of wielding rational power. Their violent displays of grief and passion, furthermore, inscribe them within a traditional locus of feminine weakness and give male characters the reason and opportunity to develop into heroes.

Research paper thumbnail of Canine Intercessors and Female Religious Metaphor in Sir Gowther. Comitatus 48 (2017): 49-71.

In the late Middle English poem Sir Gowther, the eponymous protagonist, who is the son of a devil... more In the late Middle English poem Sir Gowther, the eponymous protagonist, who is the son of a devil, embarks on a penitential journey in which he must atone for the sacrilegious crimes he committed in his infancy and adolescence. The poem departs from the conventional trajectory of medieval romance not only through the initial narrative of Gowther's sinful paternal origins, but also by making Gowther's redemption contingent upon the symbolic and literal nurturance of female and canine figures. This article focuses on these unexpected mediators, which carry religious metaphor and model virtuous conduct for the knight, challenging a model of hyper-masculinity found in the romance tradition, as well as an anthropocentric view that subjugates animals to a morally inferior position. It argues that Gowther's obedience of female and canine figures determines both the success of his ethical transformation and the survival of the spiritual community within the world of the romance, intertwining public and private, and dynastic and religious quests.

Research paper thumbnail of 'ȝit þat traytour alls tite teris lete he fall’: Arthur, Mordred, and Tragedy in the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Arthuriana (2015): 3-21.

Conference Presentations by Gillian Adler

Research paper thumbnail of 'Ad Domum Dei': Hermitage and Homecoming in the Lives of Christina of Markyate and Richard Rolle. NYU. November 5, 2022.

Research paper thumbnail of Superior to “a clokke or an abbey orlogge”: Time and Virtue in Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale. University of Glasgow. August 22, 2022.

Research paper thumbnail of Time-Keeping and Time-Wasting in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Dante's Commedia. New Chaucer Society, University of Durham. July 12, 2022.

Research paper thumbnail of Temporal Peregrinations: Dante’s Virgil, Chaucer’s Host, and the Art of Time-Keeping. Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. June 29, 2019.

Research paper thumbnail of Igerna’s Instrumentality: Sensationalizing Assault in Medieval Historiography. Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, The University of the South-Sewanee. April 13, 2019.

Research paper thumbnail of Theseus’s Loving Distance: Space, Sight, and the Boethian Intertext in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale. Institute of English Studies, University of London. June 30, 2017.

The spatial and architectural tableau of Chaucer's Knight's Tale is complex, not only offering a ... more The spatial and architectural tableau of Chaucer's Knight's Tale is complex, not only offering a visual background to events, but also expressing the pattern of alternating chaos and control in the narrative. 1 From the prison to the forest grove and grand coliseum, the spaces of the poem either animate the romantic fervor of the two Theban knights Palamon and Arcite or incite conflict between them. These spaces also reveal the extent to which Theseus, the Duke of Athens, transforms the knights' violence into chivalric displays of order and decorum to redeem their social identity. Not merely static allegorical structures, they build an active landscape that conditions how and where the characters see. More specifically, Chaucer's careful arrangement of spaces evokes two metaphorical traditions of sight that stress order and disorder:

Research paper thumbnail of Canine Intercessors and Female Religious Metaphor in Sir Gowther. NYU. April 15, 2017.

Research paper thumbnail of The Vision and Revision of History in Christine de Pizan’s Le Livre de la Cité des Dames. Canterbury Christ Church University. January 12, 2017.

Research paper thumbnail of Julian's Boethius: Space and the Ethics of Perspective in The Revelations of Divine Love. Oxford University, UK. January 9, 2016.

Research paper thumbnail of Audience and Authority in the South English Legendary 'Life of St Katherine'. Oxford University, UK. December 9, 2014.

Research paper thumbnail of 'Lokynge' at the Past: Chaucer's Boethianisms and the Vision of History in Troilus and Criseyde. Harvard University. March 15, 2014.

Research paper thumbnail of 'Introduction' to Chaucer and the Ethics of Time

University of Wales Press, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 3, 'Time and the Planets' (Adler and Strohm)

Alle Thyng Hath Tyme, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Fearing Fame from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Research paper thumbnail of Visionary Metaphors: Sight, Sickness, and Space in Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy and Julian of Norwich's Showings. Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 46.1 (2020): 53-70.

Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of "Writing History, Writing Trauma" : The Rape of Igerna in the Medieval Brut Narratives. Medieval Feminist Forum 56.3 (2021): 48-72.

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality, 2021

n the medieval Brut tradition, King Arthur' s birth takes place under the marvelous circumstances... more n the medieval Brut tradition, King Arthur' s birth takes place under the marvelous circumstances of prophecy, supernatural intervention, and disguise. With only slight variations across the tradition, the plot sequence begins with a feast in London, where the British king Uther Pendragon becomes enamored of Igerna, the wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. Considering tactical approaches to achieving his desire, Uther consults with his cherished household knight Ulfin of Ridcaradoc. He ultimately benefits from the eminent magician Merlin, who temporarily disguises Uther as Gorlois as a way to fool Igerna into receiving him. Through the illusion of corporeal mimesis, Uther successfully enters Igerna' s bedchamber at Tintagel Castle and has sexual intercourse with her. Popular Brut narratives, including Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, as well as versions by the French romancer Wace and the English historiographer Laȝamon, present this magic bedtrick as the spectacular prerequisite to the birth of Arthur, rex quondam rexque futurus. Combining Merlin's wondrous devices and Uther's theatrical performance, the scene, as these historical writings present it, features the Virgilian themes of genealogy, prophecy, and eros. 2

Research paper thumbnail of Dante's Cato: Libertà and the Dialectic of Empires in the Purgatorio

Author(s): Adler, Gillian | Abstract: This paper reads Dante’s call for imperial renovatio in the... more Author(s): Adler, Gillian | Abstract: This paper reads Dante’s call for imperial renovatio in the earliest moments of the Purgatorio. Dante’s project allegorizes the search for an ideal temporal empire through the transfiguration of the wayward soul, and uses Cato, the historical figure guarding Purgatory’s terraces, to articulate the sense of urgency with which the empire must be purified of injustice. This paper contends that Cato, a symbol of the political and moral freedom crucial to Dante’s theory of an ideal imperium, is a function of the Commedia’s broader negotiation with contradictory Virgilian and Augustinian historiographical paradigms. Deeply invested in European reform, Dante condemns a past of imperial failure while anticipating spiritual-political redemption. Medieval forms of governance within the Monarchia inform my reading of liberta in Dante’s middle canticle.

Research paper thumbnail of Female Intercession and the Shaping of Male Heroism in the Roman d'Eneas and Le chevalier au lion. Medieval Feminist Forum (2013)

or some time now, feminist literary scholarship has demonstrated how the leading female figures o... more or some time now, feminist literary scholarship has demonstrated how the leading female figures of medieval French romance are often constructed to emphasize the heroism of the male protagonist. 1 While romance challenges the model of male homosociality of the chanson de geste by expanding the discourses of heterosexual desire and by recognizing female desire, in particular, women gain prominence in this narrative form because femininity becomes the "metaphor" which male authors newly use to develop male subjectivity. As Simon Gaunt writes, "romance does not 'discover' women, or femininity, or the individual, it constructs models of them." 3 In the anonymous Roman d'Enéas and Chrétien de Troyes's Le chevalier au lion, the female protagonists Dido and Laudine, respectively, become passive objects upon which male authors effectively define the valor and prowess of male figures. Both of these female figures possess the authority and territory to rule, and yet they transform into helpless victims of love, rendered incapable of wielding rational power. Their violent displays of grief and passion, furthermore, inscribe them within a traditional locus of feminine weakness and give male characters the reason and opportunity to develop into heroes.

Research paper thumbnail of Canine Intercessors and Female Religious Metaphor in Sir Gowther. Comitatus 48 (2017): 49-71.

In the late Middle English poem Sir Gowther, the eponymous protagonist, who is the son of a devil... more In the late Middle English poem Sir Gowther, the eponymous protagonist, who is the son of a devil, embarks on a penitential journey in which he must atone for the sacrilegious crimes he committed in his infancy and adolescence. The poem departs from the conventional trajectory of medieval romance not only through the initial narrative of Gowther's sinful paternal origins, but also by making Gowther's redemption contingent upon the symbolic and literal nurturance of female and canine figures. This article focuses on these unexpected mediators, which carry religious metaphor and model virtuous conduct for the knight, challenging a model of hyper-masculinity found in the romance tradition, as well as an anthropocentric view that subjugates animals to a morally inferior position. It argues that Gowther's obedience of female and canine figures determines both the success of his ethical transformation and the survival of the spiritual community within the world of the romance, intertwining public and private, and dynastic and religious quests.

Research paper thumbnail of 'ȝit þat traytour alls tite teris lete he fall’: Arthur, Mordred, and Tragedy in the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Arthuriana (2015): 3-21.

Research paper thumbnail of 'Ad Domum Dei': Hermitage and Homecoming in the Lives of Christina of Markyate and Richard Rolle. NYU. November 5, 2022.

Research paper thumbnail of Superior to “a clokke or an abbey orlogge”: Time and Virtue in Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale. University of Glasgow. August 22, 2022.

Research paper thumbnail of Time-Keeping and Time-Wasting in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Dante's Commedia. New Chaucer Society, University of Durham. July 12, 2022.

Research paper thumbnail of Temporal Peregrinations: Dante’s Virgil, Chaucer’s Host, and the Art of Time-Keeping. Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. June 29, 2019.

Research paper thumbnail of Igerna’s Instrumentality: Sensationalizing Assault in Medieval Historiography. Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, The University of the South-Sewanee. April 13, 2019.

Research paper thumbnail of Theseus’s Loving Distance: Space, Sight, and the Boethian Intertext in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale. Institute of English Studies, University of London. June 30, 2017.

The spatial and architectural tableau of Chaucer's Knight's Tale is complex, not only offering a ... more The spatial and architectural tableau of Chaucer's Knight's Tale is complex, not only offering a visual background to events, but also expressing the pattern of alternating chaos and control in the narrative. 1 From the prison to the forest grove and grand coliseum, the spaces of the poem either animate the romantic fervor of the two Theban knights Palamon and Arcite or incite conflict between them. These spaces also reveal the extent to which Theseus, the Duke of Athens, transforms the knights' violence into chivalric displays of order and decorum to redeem their social identity. Not merely static allegorical structures, they build an active landscape that conditions how and where the characters see. More specifically, Chaucer's careful arrangement of spaces evokes two metaphorical traditions of sight that stress order and disorder:

Research paper thumbnail of Canine Intercessors and Female Religious Metaphor in Sir Gowther. NYU. April 15, 2017.

Research paper thumbnail of The Vision and Revision of History in Christine de Pizan’s Le Livre de la Cité des Dames. Canterbury Christ Church University. January 12, 2017.

Research paper thumbnail of Julian's Boethius: Space and the Ethics of Perspective in The Revelations of Divine Love. Oxford University, UK. January 9, 2016.

Research paper thumbnail of Audience and Authority in the South English Legendary 'Life of St Katherine'. Oxford University, UK. December 9, 2014.

Research paper thumbnail of 'Lokynge' at the Past: Chaucer's Boethianisms and the Vision of History in Troilus and Criseyde. Harvard University. March 15, 2014.

Research paper thumbnail of The Idea of History in Chaucer's Book of the Duchess. PAMLA, UC Riverside. October 31, 2014.

Research paper thumbnail of ȝit þat traytour alls tite teris lete he fall': Arthur, Mordred, and Tragedy in the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Kalamazoo, MI. May 11, 2013.

Research paper thumbnail of Spatial Metaphor and the Female Body in Ancrene Wisse. UC Santa Barbara. May 18, 2013.

Research paper thumbnail of Chaucer's Decameron and the Origin of the Canterbury Tales by Frederick M. Biggs

Research paper thumbnail of Chaucer and Fame: Reputation and Reception ed. by Isabel Davis and Catherine Nall

Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Gower in Context(s): Scribal, Linguistic, Literary and Socio-historical Readings ed. by Laura Filardo-Llamas, Brian Gastle and Marta Gutiérrez Rodríguez

Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of <i>The Neighboring Text: Chaucer, Boccaccio, Henryson</i> (review)

Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Intellectual Culture in Medieval Paris: Theologians and the University, c. 1100–1330 by Ian P. Wei

Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Chaucer and the Culture of Love and Marriage. By Cathy Hume. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. 2012. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2013.

Research paper thumbnail of An Introduction to the Gawain Poet. By John M. Bowers. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2013.

Research paper thumbnail of Gower in Context(s): Scribal, Linguistic, Literary and Socio-historical Readings, ed. by Laura Filardo-Llamas, Brian Gastle and Marta Gutierrez Rodriguez. Valladolid: Publicaciones Universidad de Valladolid, 2012. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2014.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Georgiana Donavin, Scribit Mater: Mary and the Language Arts in the Literature of Medieval England. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of American Press, 2012. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2012.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of George Edmondson, The Neighboring Text: Chaucer, Boccaccio, and Henryson. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2011. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2012.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Elizabeth Elliot, Remembering Boethius: Writing Aristocratic Identity in Late Medieval French and English Literatures. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2014.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Ian P. Wei, Intellectual Culture in Medieval Paris: Theologians and the University, c. 1100-1330. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2013.