Medicine and the Seven Deadly Sins in Late Medieval Literature and Culture - Hardcover

by Virginia Langum (Author)

Table of Contents

MEDICINE, SIN AND LANGUAGE

Medicine as Metaphor

Medicine as Metonymy

Medicine as Material

Metaphor as Medicine

PRIDE

Metaphorical Pride

Metonymic Pride

Material Pride

ENVY

Metaphorical Envy

Metonymic Envy

Material Envy

Metaphorical Wrath

Metonymic Wrath

Material Wrath

AVARICE

Metaphorical Avarice

Metonymic Avarice

Material Avarice

SLOTH

Metaphorical Sloth

Metonymic Sloth

Material Sloth

GLUTTONY

Metaphorical Gluttony

Metonymic Gluttony

Material Gluttony

LECHERY

Metaphorical Lechery

Metonymic Lechery

Material Lechery

CONCLUSION

NOTES

Back Jacket

This book considers how scientists, theologians, priests, and poets approached the relationship of the human body and ethics in the later Middle Ages. Is medicine merely a metaphor for sin? Or can certain kinds of bodies physiologically dispose people to be angry, sad, or greedy? If so, then is it their fault? Virginia Langum offers an account of the medical imagery used to describe feelings and actions in religious and literary contexts, referencing a variety of behavioral discussions within medical contexts. The study draws upon medical and theological writing for its philosophical basis, and upon more popular works of religion, as well as poetry, to show how these themes were articulated, explored, and questioned more widely in medieval culture.

Author Biography

Virginia Langum is Associate Professor of English at Umeå University, Sweden and Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. She recently edited Words and Matter: The Virgin Mary in Late Medieval and Early Modern Parish Life.