Ana Grinberg
Auburn University, English, Faculty Member
- University of California, San Diego, Literature, AlumnusSociété Rencesvals, American-Canadian Branch, Department Memberadd
- Medieval Literature, Religious and Ethnic Identities, Islam and Christianity: relations and exchange of ideas, Mediterranean Studies, Gender Studies, Monsters and Monster Theory, and 9 moreCarolingian Studies, Medieval Romance, Saracens, La Chanson de Fierabras, Vampire Literature, Epic Literature, Chansons De Geste, Medieval Studies, and Medieval Textiles and Clothingedit
"My dissertation explores late medieval and early modern representations of racial and religious identity as represented in several renditions of a very popular book of chivalry. Originally composed in French during the twelfth-century,... more
"My dissertation explores late medieval and early modern representations of racial and religious identity as represented in several renditions of a very popular book of chivalry. Originally composed in French during the twelfth-century, Fierabras was translated to Middle English, Castilian, Italian, German, and Latin. Furthermore, it was adapted to different genres and referenced in major works, as Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quijote and François Rabelais’ Pantagruel. Some versions have been extensively studied, but the Castilian translation—Hystoria del emperador Carlo Magno y delos doze pares de Francia & dela cruda batalla que ouo Oliveros con Fierabras, Rey de Alexandria (dated 1521)—has received scant scholarly attention. My dissertation addresses this lack, exploring the process of imagining identity—both on an individual and social scale—that is central to the formation of Western European states.
The focus here is a comparative study of three versions of Fierabras, engaging on close readings that provide a clear depiction of identity and difference. In examining instances of labeling, religious conversion, “ethnic passing,” and their political underpinnings, I consider some of the intricacies of European representations of Spain and Spain’s self-representation as a religiously and ethnically homogenous nation. The Castilian version of Fierabras illustrates the need to imagine Spain as a “pure, contained space”—a concept developed by Barbara Fuchs’ Exotic Nation—as a response to the orientalization of Spain by its “European rivals.”
Nicolás de Piemonte, the Castilian translator, modified consistently his source (Bagnyon’s Histoire de Charlemagne [c. 1470]). These modifications include the apparent fluidity of identity, the relevance of blood and lineage over dermal differences, and cultural practices that serve to separate religious and ethnic communities. From the sixteenth century on, Nicolás de Piemonte’s translation became very popular in the Iberian colonies in Africa and America. Thus, I assert that this text became the vehicle for the propagation of specific ideas about the Self and the Other, about Christianity and other religions, and about loyalty and allegiance to the sovereign."
The focus here is a comparative study of three versions of Fierabras, engaging on close readings that provide a clear depiction of identity and difference. In examining instances of labeling, religious conversion, “ethnic passing,” and their political underpinnings, I consider some of the intricacies of European representations of Spain and Spain’s self-representation as a religiously and ethnically homogenous nation. The Castilian version of Fierabras illustrates the need to imagine Spain as a “pure, contained space”—a concept developed by Barbara Fuchs’ Exotic Nation—as a response to the orientalization of Spain by its “European rivals.”
Nicolás de Piemonte, the Castilian translator, modified consistently his source (Bagnyon’s Histoire de Charlemagne [c. 1470]). These modifications include the apparent fluidity of identity, the relevance of blood and lineage over dermal differences, and cultural practices that serve to separate religious and ethnic communities. From the sixteenth century on, Nicolás de Piemonte’s translation became very popular in the Iberian colonies in Africa and America. Thus, I assert that this text became the vehicle for the propagation of specific ideas about the Self and the Other, about Christianity and other religions, and about loyalty and allegiance to the sovereign."
Research Interests:
In Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron X.9, Sultan Saladin and Messer Torello use a number of artifacts and devices to represent an ethnic and class identity that is not theirs. In this article, I argue that these ethnic performances help us... more
In Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron X.9, Sultan Saladin and Messer Torello use a number of artifacts and devices to represent an ethnic and class identity that is not theirs. In this article, I argue that these ethnic performances help us understand medieval western European anxieties about ethnic and class boundaries and their permeability. Far from contending that identity is an “either/or” condition, I find that looking into literary representations of “ethnic passing”—meaning, successfully representing someone from a different cultural and/or ethnic background—exposes the complexity of medieval identity in relation to garments, adornment, demeanor, and other cultural aspects.
Research Interests:
Following the “probable mystery” hint in Francisco Márquez Villanueva’s “El sondeable misterio de Nicolás de Piamonte,” in this paper I explore the evidence that connects the translator of Hystoria del Emperador Carlo Magno y delos doze... more
Following the “probable mystery” hint in Francisco Márquez Villanueva’s “El sondeable misterio de Nicolás de Piamonte,” in this paper I explore the evidence that connects the translator of Hystoria del Emperador Carlo Magno y delos doze pares de Francia with Nicolás Gazini de Pedemontio, an itinerant printer in the Iberian Peninsula. The elements that we know about Nicolás de Piemonte point to someone who lived in Spain during the early sixteenth century, who was aware of the political events of his time and was associated with the literary trade. The life and works of his namesake, despite a frequent claim that the translator’s name is a pseudonym, give us clues to a probable answer to this mystery.
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In this paper, through two versions of Fierabras, I explore the deformation and defamiliarization of three narrative elements: the Saracen giant, the Saracen princess, and the location in which the plot takes place. The two versions here... more
In this paper, through two versions of Fierabras, I explore the deformation and defamiliarization of three narrative elements: the Saracen giant, the Saracen princess, and the location in which the plot takes place. The two versions here implicated are the late-fourteenth century Middle English rendition, Sowdan of Babylon and the early-sixteenth century Castilian version, Historia del Emperador Carlo Magno y delos doze pares de Francia & dela cruda batalla que ouo Oliveros con Fierabras, Rey de Alexandria, hijo del grande almirante Balan. I contend that characters (like Fierabras and Floripes) and places (the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, the south of France) serve in these two texts to imagine a Christian Western European self vis-à-vis the non-Christian “other”.
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In this essay the author makes her observations on the role that the threat of a nuclear holocaust has played in forming an dystopic discourse. Through the analysis of seven movies, she also stresses the contribution of these movies to... more
In this essay the author makes her observations on the role that the threat of a nuclear holocaust has played in forming an dystopic discourse. Through the analysis of seven movies, she also stresses the contribution of these movies to the collapse of utopias and to the development of raw conscience about human temporality.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Nicolette, from the Old French text Aucassin et Nicolette, is a fascinating example of medieval female tricksters. In an episode reminiscent of Odysseus—the archetypical literary trickster—in his return to Ithaca donning a shabby cloak... more
Nicolette, from the Old French text Aucassin et Nicolette, is a fascinating example of medieval female tricksters. In an episode reminiscent of Odysseus—the archetypical literary trickster—in his return to Ithaca donning a shabby cloak and tunic, our trickster becomes a multilayered cross-dresser in her return to Beaucaire. Not only is Nicolette traveling the Mediterranean as Odysseus does, but in passing as a black, male, Saracen jongleur she embodies all that she is not, yet partially is. Whereas most scholars have most commonly regarded this chantefable in terms of gender reversal or of genre, I approach a specific scene to explore Nicolette’s interstitial ethnic/religious identity vis-à-vis her intersectional passing. I find that Nicolette’s performance as a trickster serves to further our understanding of medieval identity as always already unstable. Furthermore, race/ethnicity and confessional belonging is far more fluid in texts produced around the Mediterranean, as it is a site of cultural and political contact—a zone of intelligibility, according to Brain Catlos—that renders the imaginary Saracen Other an intimate stranger. Nicolette might not be total stranger but she is a trickster that evokes Odysseus’s mastery of deception, and uses disguise in her reappropriation of identity.
In Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron X.9, Sultan Saladin and Messer Torello use a number of artifacts and devices to represent an ethnic and class identity that is not theirs. In this paper, I argue that these ethnic performances help us... more
In Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron X.9, Sultan Saladin and Messer Torello use a number of artifacts and devices to represent an ethnic and class identity that is not theirs. In this paper, I argue that these ethnic performances help us understand medieval western European anxieties about ethnic and class boundaries and their permeability. Far from contending that identity is an “either/or” condition, I find that looking into literary representations of “ethnic passing”—meaning, successfully representing someone from a different cultural and/or ethnic background—exposes the complexity of medieval identity in relation to garments, adornment, demeanor, and other cultural aspects.
Research Interests:
If the medieval narratives about Charlemagne and his knights are to be equated to a modern example, then X-Men would be it. Just as in X-Men, some of the characters get their own book where we can learn about their past. That is the case... more
If the medieval narratives about Charlemagne and his knights are to be equated to a modern example, then X-Men would be it. Just as in X-Men, some of the characters get their own book where we can learn about their past. That is the case of Mainet, a twelfth-century account of Charlemagne’s imaginary childhood. This paper focuses on Mainet as the missing piece that explains Aigolandus surprise when conversing with Charlemagne in Turpini Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi (part of the Codex Calixtinus, known also as Pseudo-Turpin). The central element to this exploration is the fictional acquaintance of Charlemagne with “linguam sarracenicam” and its suggestion of an actual “convivencia” of a Frankish Christian knight in an Iberian Islamic court. While Mainet is not unique in depicting such occurrence, I posit that this text provides a provocative look into cultural exchanges between enemies.
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In this paper I examine the textual transformations in Nicolás de Piemonte’s translation of the French prose version of Fierabras. Piemonte’s alteration of Bagnyon’s L’Histoire de Charlemagne serve, I claim, to accommodate the struggles... more
In this paper I examine the textual transformations in Nicolás de Piemonte’s translation of the French prose version of Fierabras. Piemonte’s alteration of Bagnyon’s L’Histoire de Charlemagne serve, I claim, to accommodate the struggles between the French and Aragonese, and to create a larger community: a respublica Christiana. The literary representations of the French in Piemonte’s translation reflect the Spanish policies towards other European states at the end of the fifteenth century. Through an implicit summons for all Christians to unite against the Turk, Piemonte addresses the ambivalent relationship between France and Spain. The call for a united front against the Turk harks back to the First Crusade and Pope Urban II. A close reading of these representations—that are not present in other versions of Fierabras—offers rich evidence to theorize about identity formation in Western Europe.
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In this paper I examine the use of clothing with embroidered fringes as a metaphor of liminal identities on the peripheries of Christian Europe. While not intentionally a mise-en-abime, the sartorial edges in Nicolás de Piemonte’s... more
In this paper I examine the use of clothing with embroidered fringes as a metaphor of liminal identities on the peripheries of Christian Europe. While not intentionally a mise-en-abime, the sartorial edges in Nicolás de Piemonte’s translation of the French prose version of Fierabras (1521) serve as a critique of courtly fashions that favored the use of Moorish garments and entertainment. For a modern reader, however, these “Moorish trimmings” enable a reading of identity both as a cultural and bodily performance. Here, I propose that “ethnic cross-dressing” (a term used by Barbara Fuchs in reference to donning the garments of the ethnic Other [Passing 69]) provides a commentary on the politics for religious and ethnic homogenization of late medieval Spain. Responding to the imposition of sumptuary policies and to the traditional views of an essential identity, Piemonte’s version of Fierabras represents an emergent ideology in terms of “what makes a man.” These ideological changes as well as ethnic difference are clearly denoted in the edges of clothing and identity.
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Research Interests:
The success and renown of this chivalric fable, Auguste Kroeber has noted, is not limited to France. Fierabras, a twelfth-century French chanson de geste, was translated into Provençal, Middle English, Italian, and Spanish. Cervantes, for... more
The success and renown of this chivalric fable, Auguste Kroeber has noted, is not limited to France. Fierabras, a twelfth-century French chanson de geste, was translated into Provençal, Middle English, Italian, and Spanish. Cervantes, for example, mentioned it among the books in Don Quijote’s library. In this paper I will explore Fierabras and its late fourteenth century Middle English version, Sowdan of Babylon, where one can find not only characters of monstrous size, shape, or behavior. I contend that there is also a process of recognition of the Other as a sometimes deformed, mirror-like reflection of the self. However, the “monsterization” of the Other not only happens to the Saracen bodies and their allies; also Iberia ceases to be an identifiable place: recognizable landmarks and towns become unrecognizable. I will further posit in my paper that Fierabras is a deformed, monstrous reflection of Chanson de Roland that will eventually lead to claims, as that attributed to Alexandre Dumas, “l’Afrique commence aux Pyrénées.” Could texts as Fierabras and its versions cause that Spain became considered so different from the rest of Europe?
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In this paper I will further explore Le Goff’s treatment about the location of the purgatory in Ireland and Sicily, mentioned in his The Birth of Purgatory, mainly looking into sources for “Saint Patrick’s Purgatory” and the legend of... more
In this paper I will further explore Le Goff’s treatment about the location of the purgatory in Ireland and Sicily, mentioned in his The Birth of Purgatory, mainly looking into sources for “Saint Patrick’s Purgatory” and the legend of King Arthur’s palace in Mt. Etna. I find that these gates into the underworld are not only of “considerable importance” (Le Goff 198), I would also claim that they are the fringes of a geographical construction of the western Christian world. This spatial conception, related to medieval mappae mundi as ideological depiction of the surrounding world, enables a definition of “European-ness” as opposed to multiple Others. Sicily and Ireland were territory to pagans and/or heathens sharing a history of invasion by the Normans. Why do these places refer to groups of dead or undead? How are those groups related to peripheries?
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"During the Middle Ages and from a geographical perspective, the Iberian Peninsula was the limit to the civilized world, as happens in Dante’s Inferno Canto 26, the Hereford Map, Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale, among others. Evidently Iberia... more
"During the Middle Ages and from a geographical perspective, the Iberian Peninsula was the limit to the civilized world, as happens in Dante’s Inferno Canto 26, the Hereford Map, Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale, among others. Evidently Iberia is the Southern borderline, the periphery, the outskirts around an ideological and geographical center; and borderlines are the place where we face the monster, the other. As Michael Uebel reminds us, the borderlines are “gaps or middle places symbolizing exchange and encounter.” Iberia indeed is a location where hybrid identities flourish, where other races and peoples inhabit: it is what Mary Louise Pratt calls a contact zone, a place of meeting, clashing, and grappling of disparate and asymmetrical cultures.
Nevertheless, few medieval narratives have monsters within this location. An example is found in the Sultan of Babylon, where the Sultan Laban has three Saracen giants fighting on his side and his “chief cité” Egremoure is located in Iberian soil (717-719). In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae there is “a giant of monstrous size… emerged from certain regions in Spain” (237) living in Mont Saint Michel. But these two examples were written from without what we nowadays call Spain. Apparently, medieval Christian Iberians were not interested in depicting monsters in their own territory. Besides the monstrous “serrana” in Juan Ruiz’s Libro de Buen Amor and Rulan’s encounter against giant Ferragudo in the 12th-century Galician translation of the Pseudo Turpin, there appears no other monster. In this paper, I will explore possible explanations to this absence. Where are the local literary monsters? I posit that the convivencia of Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Iberia gave place to a hybrid culture, itself monstrous when seen from far. If monsters are the result of a perceived difference, in the case of Iberia the (religious) other is seen as an “intimate stranger” who is too near to become monstrous."
Nevertheless, few medieval narratives have monsters within this location. An example is found in the Sultan of Babylon, where the Sultan Laban has three Saracen giants fighting on his side and his “chief cité” Egremoure is located in Iberian soil (717-719). In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae there is “a giant of monstrous size… emerged from certain regions in Spain” (237) living in Mont Saint Michel. But these two examples were written from without what we nowadays call Spain. Apparently, medieval Christian Iberians were not interested in depicting monsters in their own territory. Besides the monstrous “serrana” in Juan Ruiz’s Libro de Buen Amor and Rulan’s encounter against giant Ferragudo in the 12th-century Galician translation of the Pseudo Turpin, there appears no other monster. In this paper, I will explore possible explanations to this absence. Where are the local literary monsters? I posit that the convivencia of Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Iberia gave place to a hybrid culture, itself monstrous when seen from far. If monsters are the result of a perceived difference, in the case of Iberia the (religious) other is seen as an “intimate stranger” who is too near to become monstrous."
Research Interests:
The idea of space as definition of European identity was common in the Middle Ages, as has been established in relation to the Hereford Map together with other European mappae mundi. While these representations of the medieval worldview... more
The idea of space as definition of European identity was common in the Middle Ages, as has been established in relation to the Hereford Map together with other European mappae mundi. While these representations of the medieval worldview depict Jerusalem as the navel of the world, I claim that both Chaucer's Man of Law’s Tale and Cervantes’ Persiles y Sigismunda establish similar peripheries to the respublica Christiana, where the center is Rome. While in the Man of Law’s Tale identity is claimed through religious belief, in Persiles y Sigismunda we find the characters’ identification already through nationhood and language. What is persistent is the focus on the center: Rome, both as the Papal city and as metonymy for the Roman Empire.
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Research Interests:
World Literature I is part of the core curriculum and it is designed for you to read critically and write thoughtfully about literature. We will read some of the key texts from the past—from antiquity to the early modern period. Though... more
World Literature I is part of the core curriculum and it is designed for you to read critically and write thoughtfully about literature. We will read some of the key texts from the past—from antiquity to the early modern period. Though apparently thematically diverse, the selected texts are in conversation with each other and with our present. I have included works belonging to most major cultures and genres which will allow us to learn about their historical context and consider the importance of literature throughout time. Either written by men or women, we will approach this texts with a Women’s Studies emphasis.
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World Literature I is part of the core curriculum and it is designed for you to learn to read, appreciate, and write about literature. We will read some of the key texts from the past—from antiquity to the early modern period. Though... more
World Literature I is part of the core curriculum and it is designed for you to learn to read, appreciate, and write about literature. We will read some of the key texts from the past—from antiquity to the early modern period. Though apparently thematically diverse, the selected texts are in conversation with each other and with our present. I have included works belonging to most major cultures and genres which will allow us to learn about their historical context and consider the importance of literature throughout time.
This course offers a survey of British literary works from the early Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. We will read some of the most important authors of the period, considering their historical and cultural context. The focus of... more
This course offers a survey of British literary works from the early Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. We will read some of the most important authors of the period, considering their historical and cultural context. The focus of this course is the formation of British national identity both as an imagined homogeneous reality centered in Englishness and, also, as a peripheral identity in relation to continental Europe. In a discussion-based environment, we will learn to read closely a range of exciting texts and genres, looking at issues of gender, race/ethnicity, religion and class. Students are expected to engage in creative thinking and develop writing skills in our academic journey together.
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This course offers a guided survey of European works from antiquity to early modernity. We will read some of the most important authors of these periods, considering their historical and cultural context. From world creation myths to... more
This course offers a guided survey of European works from antiquity to early modernity. We will read some of the most important authors of these periods, considering their historical and cultural context. From world creation myths to epics and political satires, we will explore the formation of a highly contested continental European identity. In a discussion-based environment, we will learn to read closely a range of exciting texts and genres, looking at issues of race/ethnicity, gender, and class. Students are expected to engage in creative thinking and develop writing skills in our academic journey together. (This course fulfills a writing-intensive requirement.)
This course offers a guided survey of European works from antiquity to modernity. We will read some of the most important authors of these periods, considering their historical and cultural context. In a discussion-based environment, we... more
This course offers a guided survey of European works from antiquity to modernity. We will read some of the most important authors of these periods, considering their historical and cultural context. In a discussion-based environment, we will learn to read closely a range of exciting texts and genres, looking at issues of race/ethnicity, gender, and class. Students are expected to engage in creative thinking and develop writing skills in our academic journey together.
Eve: Culprit of man’s fall or sweet mother of mankind? Women have been associated with these two roles since Genesis, but what about Eve? In this class we will explore the literary and artistic representations of Eve to enhance our... more
Eve: Culprit of man’s fall or sweet mother of mankind? Women have been associated with these two roles since Genesis, but what about Eve? In this class we will explore the literary and artistic representations of Eve to enhance our understanding of misogyny and philogyny, as bases to our modern conception of womanhood. The readings will range from pre-biblical texts to modern poetry, from the Middle East to Europe and the United States. Join us in this cross-cultural and trans-historical examination of Eve (and the serpent, of course).
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Course description: This course offers an exploration of European women’s responses to misogyny. Ranging from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century, we will read texts that comprise what has been called the querelle de femmes... more
Course description: This course offers an exploration of European women’s responses to misogyny. Ranging from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century, we will read texts that comprise what has been called the querelle de femmes including peripheral female voices—composers and writers that have been left out—such as Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, Trotula of Salerno, Gwerful Mechain, Isabel de Villena, and Lucrezia Marinella. We will also consider literary feminist scholarship to better inform our pursuit. This is a Women’s Studies elective.
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This course serves as an exploration of the monster in literature and its multiple meanings. Focusing on giants, werewolves, and vampires, we consider a range of European texts in translation as primary sources. Besides we study some key... more
This course serves as an exploration of the monster in literature and its multiple meanings. Focusing on giants, werewolves, and vampires, we consider a range of European texts in translation as primary sources. Besides we study some key scholarship on monster theory, as well as get some training on academic approaches to literature and film.
Research Interests:
Course description: This course offers a survey of American literature from 1865 to the present day. We will focus our exploration on the woman’s authorial voice, while considering the changes in American society during these years: the... more
Course description: This course offers a survey of American literature from 1865 to the present day. We will focus our exploration on the woman’s authorial voice, while considering the changes in American society during these years: the end of slavery, the rapid growth of American cities, the struggles of minorities, and the formation of an American identity. Key to our class will be the role of literature in developing imagined communities, both national and local. A discussion-based environment, together with a series of assignments will lead us in our reading of a range of exciting texts.
English 1028 is a special topics composition course designed to develop students’ academic writing skills, with emphasis on critical thinking, research, and argument. In this class, we will examine (ethnic/racial, sexual/gender, and... more
English 1028 is a special topics composition course designed to develop students’ academic writing skills, with emphasis on critical thinking, research, and argument. In this class, we will examine (ethnic/racial, sexual/gender, and class/social status) identity as performance in literature and film. Drawing from selections from Stuart Hall’s The Spectacle of the Other, Judith Butler’s Undoing Gender, Gwendolyn Foster’s Class-passing: Social Mobility in Film and Popular Culture, and Marjorie Garber’s Vested Interests, we will explore the use of clothing and physical adornment to represent a different social identity. Readings will include a selection from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, selections from Hic Mulier and Haec Vir, Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina, and Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. We will also watch some clips from films, among them Agnieszka Holland’s Europa, Europa, Steven Spilberg’s Catch Me If You Can, and Sally Potter’s Orlando. This is a Women’s Studies elective.
This course is a semester-long engagement with, reading, discussion, research and writing. In our section we will explore cultural aspects of literature and mass-media. Through diverse articles and other written (and sometimes visual)... more
This course is a semester-long engagement with, reading, discussion, research and writing. In our section we will explore cultural aspects of literature and mass-media. Through diverse articles and other written (and sometimes visual) materials, we will develop critical reading and writing skills that will lead us to an 8-10 page essay addressing an authentic audience.
This course is a semester-long engagement with research, reading, discussion, and writing. In our section we will explore scientific and technical progress in relation to health and mass-media. Through diverse articles and other written... more
This course is a semester-long engagement with research, reading, discussion, and writing. In our section we will explore scientific and technical progress in relation to health and mass-media. Through diverse articles and other written (and sometimes visual) materials, we will develop critical reading and writing skills that will lead us to an 8-10 page essay addressing an authentic audience.
This course explores love relationships that have been and still are, at times, considered inappropriate and scandalous. Even if love is a universal feeling, does it mean that everybody has to love the same way? Why is our literature full... more
This course explores love relationships that have been and still are, at times, considered inappropriate and scandalous. Even if love is a universal feeling, does it mean that everybody has to love the same way? Why is our literature full of stories of illicit love? Why is the allure of the forbidden so tempting? The readings in this course help us understand how men and women feel and express love, from the Middle Ages to the Romantic period. Special consideration will be given to Shakespeare's forbidden relationships. Chaucer, Dante, Boccaccio, Lord Byron, and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu will also guide us in this exploration of illicit desires.