Representing Others in Medieval Iberian Literature

This book focuses on the ways exiled medieval Iberian intellectuals-Jewish, Arabic, and Christian-used canonical discourses to shape/create cultural models that 'go against the grain,' i.e. that differ significantly from official European and Eastern discourses. Representing Others examines how Iberian authors used the fictional go-between to reflect on their role as cultural intermediaries and to open up spaces in the dominant discourse for the variety of voices that characterizes medieval Iberian culture. Representing Others explores the processes of identity formation in a society/geographical region often excluded from discussions of both European and Middle Eastern histories and literatures.

Michelle M. Hamilton is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of California, Irvine. Her research investigates gender and sexuality in medieval Hebrew and Arab works from medieval Iberia, as well as analysis of the intellectual indebtedness of canonical Spanish works to Judeo- and Arabo-Iberian works. Recent publications include Wine, Women and Song: Hebrew and Arabic Literature in Medieval Iberia (2004) and “Rereading the Widow: A Possible Judeo-Iberian Model for the Pseudo-Ovidian De Vetula and the Libro de buen amor” (Speculum 2007).