13th Annual Colloquium
Faculty Highlight
Barrett Emerick presented at the UK-SWIP (Society for Women in Philosophy) conference, "Feminist Epistemology and Philosophical Traditions," in November. The title of his paper was "A Defense of Doxastic and Affective Voluntarism."
Love Cures: Healing and Magic in Old French Romance (Penn State UP, 2009)
by Associate Professor of French Laine E. Doggett
What is love? Pop culture bombards us with notions of the intoxicating capacities of love or beguiling women who can bewitch or heal—to the point that it is easy to believe that such images are timeless and universal. Not so, argues Love Cures. Aspects of love that today are expressed in lyrics such as “love is a drug,” “sexual healing” and “love potion number nine” have not existed for all time but instead trace deep roots to Old French romance of the high Middle Ages. Some of the most intriguing episodes of medieval romance contain women who practice healing and love magic. A young woman heals a poisoned knight. A mother prepares a love potion for a daughter who will marry a stranger in a faraway land. A maid-servant helps her charge fake death in order to marry the man she loves. How can readers interpret such events?
In contrast to scholars who have dismissed these women as fantasy figures or labeled them “witches” without context, Love Cures analyzes them in light of medical and magical practices of the high Middle Ages—often startlingly different than modern readers assume them to be. Doggett’s analysis reveals that these characters were modeled on informally trained practitioners (or empirics) common to their time, and were well-respected and successful. This reading recuperates empirical practitioners from the fairy wonderland to which they have been exiled and promotes a new level of understanding of women’s acquisition and application of specialized knowledge. By situating empirics in their historical context, this study enables a clearer understanding of modern, Western constructions of love, power, and relationships between men and women.
Love Cures also argues that empirical practitioners as represented in romance exert a shaping influence on components of the social construct of love itself. They are more than a transparent reflection of their world. By examining the roles and functions of empirical practices in the texts, this study shows how romance influences the courtly ideal of love by accreting to it notions such as the link between love and healing or between feelings of love and a sense of intoxication. Doggett locates how, when, and where these ideas were elaborated and gained greater currency, thereby illuminating an important moment in the history of love as represented in literature. Written not only for literary critics and historians, Love Cures seeks to engage scholars of love, marriage and magic in disciplines as diverse as anthropology, philosophy, psychology and religious studies.
