Strange Matter - Medieval Disruptions of Time

Strange matter: Medieval disruptions of time offers exciting new perspectives on objects from the Middle Ages and the various ways they inform and complicate our perception of temporality.

The Middle Ages were intrigued by the different forms of materiality physical objects could take. In meditating on their provenance, mode of production and/or transformation(s) over time, medieval texts enable the artefacts in question to operate as potent repositories of temporal 'otherness'. This capacity for time-related alterity appears also to lie at the heart of the post-medieval fascination with - quite literally - all things medieval. Drawing on texts and artworks ranging from the early medieval Franks Casket via Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Thomas Bradwardine's mathematical writings to stained glass windows, carved ivory horns from Fatimid Egypt and the boqtaq brought back by Marco Polo from his journey to the court of China's Mongol emperor, the essays assembled in this volume transcend the boundaries of the Anglophone world and showcase medieval studies' important contribution to overcoming the limitations of a reductive, Eurocentric perspective on non-Western cultures.

As it engages critically with the specific temporal otherness that modernity has been inclined to associate with medieval texts and artefacts, Strange matter enters into productive dialogue with recent trends in criticism, such as thing studies and the growing field of 'object biographies' in cultural studies and museology.

About the author

Andrew James Johnston is Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin

Product details

• Authors: Martin Hartmann Bleisteiner
• Assisted by: Martin Bleisteiner (Editor), Jan-Peer Hartmann (Editor), Johnston Andrew James (Editor)
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 29.07.2025
• EAN: 9781526175960
• ISBN: 978-1-5261-7596-0
• No. of pages: 318
• Series: Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 16th Century, Medieval History, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, European history: medieval period, middle ages, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, HISTORY / Europe / Medieval, Literary studies: c 1400 to c 1600