tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post855161520383892805..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Dear Fellow Iberianists: Where Are We?Cord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-48892387620630408022018-03-04T13:12:55.990-05:002018-03-04T13:12:55.990-05:00Thank you for posting this. I wouldn't necessa...Thank you for posting this. I wouldn't necessarily call our silence "thundering," but we certainly could be louder. I wonder if venue is part of the issue. I've been speaking publicly and will soon be publishing on these issues in Iberia, but traditional scholarship like this, especially when presented at other universities and/or published in scholarly volumes, doesn't always break through to the wider public in the way that it needs to--AND of course it can take the print publications a long time to appear. <br /><br />Ditto for teaching: in fact we had a rousing discussion of Ferández-Morera, Menocal, and the politics of medieval Iberia in my seminar a few weeks ago--but this was four students an an upper-level course in an ivory-tower department, and we cannot wait until these young scholars are teaching and writing themselves for the impact of our discussion to be felt. <br /><br />So I join "Ojo" in wondering where our voices are most profitably heard. In conferences? Blog posts? Social media? Public workshops? One avenue might be student readers like the one in plan at Fordham, "Whose Middle Ages?", which potentially could circulate quite widely. Another public space could be museum exhibitions like the Getty's recent "Outcasts," though those have a very long turnaround too. I'd be interested in the group's thoughts here, since I've been hammering away at this material for a while now without really feeling as if it is reaching the people it needs to--even some of my distinguished colleagues in other disciplines.<br /><br />One more thought: when a book is so unobjective, poorly researched, and poorly vetted that it has to be published by a partisan think tank, the very fact that it has been largely ignored by many scholars does say something. Perhaps just not enough.<br /><br />Look forward to further thoughts about this.<br /><br />Pamela Pattonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01659456007626860740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-37148561954613316312018-02-27T22:58:58.236-05:002018-02-27T22:58:58.236-05:00Another thing (OJO here again)
It occurs to me th...Another thing (OJO here again)<br /><br />It occurs to me that, again, you are right in this piece that we may not be as visible in the dumpster fire summer because we have "been there, done that." <br />I'm reminded of an ex. of the way Iberianists have already been making some noise out there. There were a few really good popular pieces in newspapers and magazines by scholars when the term "jihad" was appropriated after 9/11 and ever since. <br />I can't remember where they were now.<br />I know Brian Catlos did one that was very widely read. And it seems like there was an effort by some to keep a tally of these attempts to shut down the appropriation. That was a few years back and I just don't really remember the details now.*<br /><br />The plan for the "Cordoba Project in NYC" after 9/11 was completely distorted and I think some scholars tried to speak out to save the name/concept of Cordoba. <br /><br />Maybe others remember more about these pieces and related activities. There were basic info of facts, history, the story of Medieval Iberia a la Ornament of the World on some campuses and in public venues done by scholars in that time as well. It was before twitter and even before many were active on FB. <br /><br />That all had a diff. shape than the shorter and even more accessible pieces that are being done by medievalists responding to the dumpster fire summer. I mean, there is a difference between writing something for the Washington Post or writing something for The Public Medievalist's series on Race/Racism. I need to invest more thought and effort into doing this and others in my areas of research could really help out by doing the same. <br /><br />We should not cede our space to non-Iberianists or allow Anglo-Saxonists or others -- let me acknowledge that there is a lot of bitterness among Frenchies, Occitanists, Iberianists, and I assume others about the fact that so much of Medieval Studies stuff in English (publications, events, conferences, # of panels at Kzoo *cough**cough*) goes to those who study English topics. We should be the first to comment rather than leaving it to Bruce Holsinger to call out Carly Fiorina's qualification of ISIS as harkening to Islam in the Middle Ages:<br />https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/opinion/carly-fiorina-goes-medieval.html?ref=opinion<br /><br />Despite generally being a bit ascetic and monastic in my love of solitude, retiring from the world, and above all SILENCE, this is a moment in which I cannot but welcome a lot more noise. <br /><br />* Could it be I've conflated some articles or have there been a few by Catlos? Because I now remember this one in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential elections. <br />https://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/what-paranoid-anti-muslim-bigots-like-ben-carson-dont-understand-about-taqiyya/<br />as well as<br />https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/religious-nationalism-finds-a-footing-in-the-middle-east/2015/01/02/b1fca096-91f2-11e4-a900-9960214d4cd7_story.html?utm_term=.1c237b2ad702<br /><br />VMWRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00999012186835821759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-73957393424014818522018-02-27T14:12:53.476-05:002018-02-27T14:12:53.476-05:00Gracias Chad por escribir este texto; también grac...Gracias Chad por escribir este texto; también gracias a S.J. Pearce por su excelente reseña. <br /><br />Suscribo los comentarios de Simone y Ojo; en especial la última parte del de Simone, dado que se trata de un libro que<br /><br />a) nombra incorrectamente desde el título el tema del que trata (Andalusian en lugar de Andalusi)<br />b) no lo publica una editorial académica<br />c) no lo escribe un medievalista, ni siquiera un especialista en convivencia-connivencia.<br />d) todo lo que S.J. Pearce y tú señaláis, en especial su desconocimiento de la literatura sobre el período.<br /><br />El autor consiguió lo que quería: la TV lo ha entrevistado, ha sido incluido en listas de su corriente política, le darán premios quienes lo publican. Pero dadas las carencias señaladas no creo que merezca la pena gastar más esfuerzo en él.<br /><br />La guerra civil española continuó en el medievalismo; ahora Fernández-Morera quiere continuar las culture wars estadounidenses. Creo que si damos esa batalla ponemos al mismo nivel su libro que los de Kenneth Baxter Wolf, Brian Catlos, Ann Rosemary Christys, David Coleman, Olivia Remie Constable, Jean Dangler, Jerilynn Dodds, Simon Doubleday, Denise Filios, Thomas Glick Oriol Pi-Sunyer, L. P. Harvey, Richard Hitchcock, Chris Lowney, David Nirenberg, Pamela Patton, Jonathan Ray, Teófilo Ruiz, Janina M. Safran, Maya Soifer, S.J. Pearce y Nadia Altschul. Es decir, lo dignificamos. Como dice Ojo, libros como ése se publican cada mes en España y ningún arabista les hace caso.<br /><br />---- <br /><br />Thank you Chad for writing this post; also thanks to S.J. Pearce, for her excellent review.<br /><br />I agree with Simone and Ojo; especially with the last part of Simone's comment, since it is a book that<br /><br />a) incorrectly names on the title its topic (Andalusian instead of Andalusi)<br />b) it is not published by an academic press, but by a conservative think-thank.<br />c) it is not written by an specialist in the convivencia; not even by a medievalist.<br />d) everything else that S.J. Pearce and you point out, especially his ignorance of the literature on the period.<br /><br />The author got what he wanted: TV interviews, inclusion in conservative book lists and events, attention from specialists in the field. But given his book shortcomings, I do not think it's worth spending more effort on it.<br /><br />The Spanish civil war continued in hispanomedievalism; now Fernández-Morera wants to use it as an extension of the American culture wars. I think that if we give him that battle we are putting his book on the same level as those written by Kenneth Baxter Wolf, Brian Catlos, Ann Rosemary Christys, David Coleman, Olivia Remie Constable, Jean Dangler, Jerilynn Dodds, Simon Doubleday, Denise Filios, Thomas Glick Oriol Pi- Sunyer, LP Harvey, Richard Hitchcock, Chris Lowney, David Nirenberg, Pamela Patton, Jonathan Ray, Teofilo Ruiz, Janina M. Safran, Maya Soifer, S.J. Pearce and Nadia Altschul. <br /><br />We dignify it. As Ojo says in her comment, books like Fernandez-Morera’s are published recurrently in Spain and no Arabist or medievalist pays any attention to them.<br />Juan Escouridonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-87820260926590629712018-02-27T08:49:57.192-05:002018-02-27T08:49:57.192-05:00Excellent post. I think it extends beyond just the...Excellent post. I think it extends beyond just the medieval Iberianists, too (early mod scholar over here). I think we met at this past MLA, when I spoke about similar issues with the comedia and keeping it relevant for today’s students/audiences. If we can’t convince others that it matters, then who is going to care in 10 or 15 years? And, as you say, if we aren’t controlling the message, it will get co-opted, and potentially not for the better.Profecowlinghttp://ecowling.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-49896561645052919782018-02-27T07:14:15.164-05:002018-02-27T07:14:15.164-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Domicshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02108175024624509183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-76603092113559223362018-02-27T05:57:20.279-05:002018-02-27T05:57:20.279-05:00Oh. And.
As regards why there was no reaction to ...Oh. And.<br /><br />As regards why there was no reaction to the book you mentioned, I remember a few people did go on amazon to write reviews in the hopes of discouraging people from purchasing it for a good intro to Medieval Iberia. Looking now I see the positive reviews far outweigh the negative which is scary as F. But that is the nature of that kind of publication I think. There are dozens of these published in Spain every year. They all say the same nonsense and quote non-academic sources and are put on display in the windows of certain kinds of bookstores. No one takes them seriously. Perhaps we should. But it does seem like the words of university professors would never reach the audience of such books anyway. Where do they intersect with us? Where can we have a conversation? I work on Crown of Aragon stuff and I kind of love to see the way the historical record is weaponized. It is fascinating. Terrifying, but also fascinating. There are tons of crazy books out there about Catalunya not existing or how Catalan was the first language of Babel and on and on. And check out Catalunya´s twitter discussions these last couple of months. Hoo lawd. It is a vast ocean of nonsensical misinformation out there. When real facts, archival materials, data, historical dates are thrown out there someone claims this is Catalans creating fake evidence!!! So I think that is perhaps one reason those who work on Iberia and read current events and browse bookshops in small towns might not engage. I don´t know what to do about that and am glad you have urged us to think about it. <br /><br />I will note that in your account you do not say you have heard Iberianists say they just don´t want to bother, or they don´t feel implicated in things like the Alt-Right appropriation of history from the period we study, or the other issues of social justice or other issues of race/racism in our materia or in our field. I am sad to say that I have had conversations with people who study French/Occitan/etc. wherein some made very clear that entering into any of these discussions, even defining our terms carefully to avoid the anachronism that implies origin myths of France, is unnerving, even loathsome for them. <br /><br />Basically, I know nothing of Medieval England. I do know that the field as it is today and the historiography and our materials are spaces teeming with the very same issues of social justice at the fore today.VMWRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00999012186835821759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-63087221435434519332018-02-27T05:53:07.632-05:002018-02-27T05:53:07.632-05:00I'm happy to see some Mediterranean/Iberian di...I'm happy to see some Mediterranean/Iberian discussion here at ITM. It is a good question you've thrown out to us: Why are we who work on Iberia not more "engaged"? I'm wondering what this engagement looks like, where it happens? Where you see the English medievalists doing it but don't see us beside them?<br />I notice your reader is imagined as a non-Iberianist. <br /><br />I think you've pointed to one of the possible answers for the question. Iberianists fought this battle, or one akin to it, back in the day of the "thèse Orientale" of the turn of the previous century leading up to the Civil War and Franco. The thrashing of Asín Palacios came to mind as I was reading your idea. Then continues. Until when???<br /><br />I asked Maria Rosa Menocal and some others when the debate died or the war ended, if we can dub the "thèse orientale" as such. None of them could say. I think that is the real significance of Menocal´s <i>Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History</i>. That book invites specialists from other literary traditions to learn the story of how Medieval European literature took shape. I feel like it just neatly tied up the debate and declared the "thèse Orientale" a winner, not to those in "the field" which in that day was confused--was the field Spanish Studies or Arabic Studies? How could it be either...etc.? <br /><br />So this fits your proposition that we've done this already. We fought the battle against the fascists and showed that the origins of the nation of Spain and its national literature were not singular, direct Roman-ness, but through archival discoveries like that which posthumously sort of salvaged Asín Palacio's Islam and Dante and snatched the claim to first lyric in a Romance language from the grip of the reluctant French, the beginnings were interwoven, beauty of multiplicities...I am beginning to sound like Menocal. And that is understandable because I like playing the Ornament of the World of Menocal off the violence and separateness and conflict of Nirenberg. I like to do this for undergraduates in a discussion that runs through this historiography. It is fascinating and shows us that we CANNOT be disengaged from the political in our reading. Not only do I do this in the survey class for Spanish students but I have done presentations with a colleague from Jewish Studies, Federica Francesconi, for a wider public. This, to me, is a very tame, somewhat muted making of noise. At least that is how we intend for it to function. But this is not terribly public. How do people hear this? Who hears this? What else can we do? Where else can we go?VMWRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00999012186835821759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-65183807047069973682018-02-26T10:17:44.795-05:002018-02-26T10:17:44.795-05:00Oh, god, yes, you are right about many things here...Oh, god, yes, you are right about many things here. In some way, the "always already engaged" issue, which makes many of these issue seem a bit old hat: in Spanish departments in which the defense of multiculturalism and minority cultures is not only a question of teachable content but of administrative policies and university politics that involve both Iberianists and Latin Americanists alike. On the other hand, Sarah's incisive and demolishing piece, which has been widely shared, has said just about anything that one would like to be said about this. What I mean is I agree with not debating nor throwing any light on this matter. We should actively refuse to review, mention, discuss work of this sort: bad scholarship, tendentious writing, shoddy research and racist stuff will be published after this too. Let us not give it any attention. I do feel we do not have time for this: let us praise, and circulate, and review, and quote all the solid scholarship that you mention and that requires maximal visibility. You're right. Let's make some noise. Preferably of the danceable variety. <br />Thanks for this.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05362463529075949878noreply@blogger.com