Affective Meditation and the Invention of Medieval Compassion

Sarah McNamer is Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University.

• Introduction: Intimate Scripts in the History of EmotionPART I. THE ORIGINS OF AN AFFECTIVE MODE1. Compassion and the Making of a True Sponsa Christi2. The Genealogy of a Genre3. Franciscan Meditation ReconsideredPART II. PERFORMING COMPASSION IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND4. Feeling Like a Woman5. Marian Lament and the Rise of a Vernacular Ethics6. Kyndenesse and Resistance in the Middle English Passion LyricNotesWorks CitedIndex of ManuscriptsIndexAcknowledgments

"Brilliant and lucid. . . . a stunning book" (Common Knowledge) "In her rich and provocative study, Sarah McNamer provides some novel, sometimes polemical answers. . . . A must-read for any student of late medieval religion or literature-deeply thoughtful, wide-ranging, and superbly written, a model of what the new history of emotions can do for medievalists." (Journal of English and Germanic Philology) "Sarah McNamer's book offers a series of salutary exercises in rethinking. . . . The reader is treated to a skillful, often convincing, reassembly of well-known elements. What emerges each time is an entirely novel thesis that challenges standard literary history." (American Historical Review) "McNamer is doing nothing less than writing a new history of medieval affective spirituality." (Speculum) "Elegantly written and boldly conceived, Affective Meditation and the Invention of Medieval Compassion invites us to think more deeply about where compassion comes from, how it has to do with gender, and what it produced." (Journal of Religious Cultures) "This nuanced exploration of devotional meditation on Christ's Passion by medieval Christians combines detailed archival research with theologically astute analysis of the Passion's depiction in devotional books and visual art." (Choice) "A major book that offers a wide range of literary, religious studies, and historical scholars a new narrative for a familiar cultural transformation." (Andrew Galloway, Cornell University)