Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book

出版者:Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

作者:Poor, Sara S.

页数:350

出版时间:2004-6

价格:$ 79.04

装帧:HRD

isbn号码:9780812238020

具体描述

Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book Gender and the Making of Textual Authority Sara S. Poor Winner of the 2006 First Book Prize of the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship Winner of the 2008 John Nicholas Brown Prize from the Medieval Academy of America "Authoritative, convincing, well argued."--Choice "Everyone who is genuinely interested in problems of women's writing, vernacularity, and the construction of textual authority will have much to learn from this book."--Barbara Newman, Northwestern University "Poor has not only contributed to our knowledge of Mechthild and the textual history of her work but provided an ambitious model for how to engage with a medieval text, its author, its reception by disparate readers, and its perception by modern scholars."--The Medieval Review Poor's astute examination of Mechthild's authorship and the historical transmission of her text contributes significantly not only to the fields of feminist medieval scholarship but also demonstrates how a medieval text can more broadly engage in the construction of religious, philosophical, and literary traditions across time." --Medieval Feminist Forum "This remarkable book, a kind of textual biography, is the product of meticulous research and is an astute reflection on the paradoxes of textual authority in mystical texts."--Journal of Religion Sometime around 1230, a young woman left her family and traveled to the German city of Magdeburg to devote herself to worship and religious contemplation. Rather than living in a community of holy women, she chose isolation, claiming that this life would bring her closer to God. Even in her lifetime, Mechthild of Magdeburg gained some renown for her extraordinary book of mystical revelations, The Flowing Light of the Godhead, the first such work in the German vernacular. Yet her writings dropped into obscurity after her death, many assume because of her gender. In Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book, Sara S. Poor seeks to explain this fate by considering Mechthild's own view of female authorship, the significance of her choice to write in the vernacular, and the continued, if submerged, presence of her writings in a variety of contexts from the thirteenth through the nineteenth century. Rather than explaining Mechthild's absence from literary canons, Poor's close examination of medieval and early modern religious literature and of contemporary scholarly writing reveals her subject's shifting importance in a number of differently defined traditions, high and low, Latin and vernacular, male- and female-centered. While gender is often a significant factor in this history, Poor demonstrates that it is rarely the only one. Her book thus corrects late twentieth-century arguments about women writers and canon reform that often rest on inadequate notions of exclusion. Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book offers new insights into medieval vernacular mysticism, late medieval women's roles in the production of culture, and the construction of modern literary traditions. Sara S. Poor teaches German at Princeton University and is coeditor of Women and Medieval Epic. The Middle Ages Series 2004 | 352 pages | 6 x 9 ISBN 978-0-8122-3802-0 | Cloth | $69.95s | GBP45.50 ISBN 978-0-8122-0328-8 | Ebook | $69.95s | GBP45.50 World Rights | Literature, Women's/Gender Studies

用户评价

这本书的翻译质量，对于这种跨越数百年时空的文本来说，几乎决定了它的成败，而我必须说，这次的译者团队交出了一份令人惊喜的答卷。他们显然没有满足于仅停留在词汇层面的对等替换，而是深刻理解了原文中那种特有的、介于祈祷与诗歌之间的语调。在处理那些充满象征意义的意象时，译者展现了极高的文学敏感度，保留了原文那种既是世俗的、又是全然神圣的张力。有些段落的节奏感尤其出色，读起来朗朗上口，仿佛能听到某种古老的吟唱在耳边回响。这种流畅性对于非拉丁语或中古德语背景的读者来说至关重要，它消除了知识获取上的巨大障碍，使得我们能够心无旁骛地去感受那位灵修大师思想的流动性。与我以前读过的某些译本相比，这个版本在保持学术准确性的同时，极大地提升了文本的可读性和艺术感染力，为更广泛的读者群体打开了一扇通往中世纪神秘主义殿堂的华丽之门。

坦白说，我一开始拿起这本书是带着一种朝圣者的心态，期望找到某种能立即点亮我精神世界的“秘钥”，但这本书给我的体验是渐进式的、需要耐心的耕耘。它不像那些快餐式的励志读物，提供即时满足感；相反，它要求读者慢下来，与文本进行长时间的、近乎对话的交流。我特别欣赏它对时代背景的细致刻画，书中没有孤立地看待这位人物，而是将其置于其所处的社会、教会和哲学思潮的复杂网络之中，这使得我们能够理解她的某些激进观点是如何在当时的语境下成为可能，以及又是如何招致非议的。书中的论证结构非常扎实，每一个推论都建立在充分引用的史料之上，这种扎实的学术基础，极大地增强了其论点的可信度，让读者在精神层面感到被信服的同时，智识层面也得到了极大的满足。它不是简单地讲述“她说了什么”，而是深入探讨了“她为什么会这样说”，这种深度挖掘的努力是值得称赞的。

我通常对这类专注于单一宗教人物的传记或文本解读持保留态度，总觉得容易陷入过度神化的陷阱，但这本书的叙事视角处理得相当高明，它巧妙地在虔诚的赞颂与严谨的历史考据之间找到了一个几乎完美的平衡点。作者似乎并不急于为这位中世纪的灵修导师树立一座不朽的丰碑，而是更像一位耐心的考古学家，小心翼翼地剥离历史的尘埃，试图还原一个有血有肉、充满挣扎与狂喜的个体经验。阅读过程中，我多次被其中对内在神性体验的描摹所震撼，那种用日常语言去捕捉超验瞬间的努力，本身就是一种强大的艺术实践。尤其是一些关于“灵魂的舞蹈”和“圣爱的燃烧”的段落，文字的密度和情感的强度达到了令人窒息的地步，完全不同于我之前接触过的其他中世纪灵修文献那种相对枯燥的教条陈述。它成功地将一种高度个人化的、近乎激进的内省过程，转化为一种具有普世价值的、关于人类精神渴望的深刻表达。

我向来偏爱那些能激发我进行自我反思的阅读材料，而这本书无疑达到了这一标准。它不像某些哲学著作那样高高在上地提出抽象概念，而是通过描绘一个具体灵魂在追求至高真理过程中的起伏跌宕，巧妙地引导读者审视自身的信仰结构与情感模式。阅读过程中，我不断地将书中所描述的那些极端的虔诚、彻底的自我放弃与自我发现的时刻，对照到我自己的生活经验中去，思考“献祭”与“完整”在当代精神生活中的意义。这本书的价值不在于提供一个现成的答案，而在于提供了一套极其精妙的、关于如何“体验”信仰的语言工具和框架。它强迫读者走出舒适区，去面对人性中那些最原始、最深刻的渴望与恐惧。读完此书，我的内心世界仿佛经历了一场精心策划的地震，旧有的认知结构被震散，但新的、更有韧性的理解正在废墟之上缓缓成型。这是一次纯粹的、具有塑造力的阅读体验，远远超越了简单的信息获取。

这部作品的装帧设计本身就透露出一种沉静而深邃的气息，那种略带粗粝质感的纸张，触感上仿佛能引导人进入一个遥远的时代。封面上的字体排版简洁却不失庄重，暗示着其中蕴含的文本重量，它没有试图用花哨的图像来吸引眼球，而是依靠一种内在的质感来吸引那些真正对中世纪灵性生活怀有探究之心的人。我尤其欣赏它在处理跨文化交流方面的微妙平衡，虽然主题聚焦于特定的历史人物和她的著作，但译者和编者显然花费了大量精力来构建一个易于现代读者理解的语境，使得那些晦涩难懂的神秘主义概念不再是高悬于空的理论，而是具有鲜活生命力的精神实践。书中的注释系统是另一个亮点，它们没有过度干扰阅读的主线流程，却在关键时刻提供了必要的历史背景或神学解释，这种克制的设计哲学，使得读者既能沉浸于文本本身的情感洪流，又能在需要时获得坚实的学术支撑。读完之后，合上书本，那种感觉就像是刚刚从一场漫长的、却极其充实的冥想中抽离出来，余韵悠长，让人忍不住想要立刻重读某些章节，去捕捉那些之前可能因为心神不宁而错过的细微光芒。