Reviewed by:

• Marginal Figures in the Global Middle Ages and the Renaissance by Meg Lota Brown
• Nicholas D. Brodie

This book is not about classically marginal historical figures like the poor, the infirm, the elderly, children, or cultural others and outsiders. It will be of most interest to scholars interested in its constituent subjects, particularly those with a literary focus. The volume opens with a chapter by Arnaud Zimmern that explores conceptual gaps in the context and reception of John Donne, focusing on the original context of Donne’s much-cited lines about islands and men. Zimmern explores the contrast evident in modern readings that inflect a ‘secular cosmopolitanism’ (p. 5) and suggests that the liturgical and ecclesiastical specificity of Donne’s meaning has been forgotten in favour of an abstract, morally universalist reading of the lines. The same phenomenon, he argues, is evident in Donne’s other much-quoted line about tolling bells, thereby marking a shift from an auditorily linked ecclesial community to abstract modern readings that envision a shared, global humanity.

The book’s attention then shifts to British encounters with Japan through East India Company personnel, with Paul Hartle offering an interesting chapter drawn from snippets of source material to present a compelling case that the early modern British could engage in a more interrogative, open-minded, and curious encounter than is often assumed by scholars mesmerised by the obvious fact that Europeans tended to bring their own cultural baggage and educative viewpoint to such encounters. Kyle DiRoberto then returns the volume’s attention from Japan back to those islands on the other side of Eurasia. He focuses on representations of the ploughman in the literary tussles between popular and Puritan writers in England. Of interest is the way that a dynamic of mutual response produced a discernible literary phenomenon whereby each group included ‘the exaggerated presence in each other’s writing of the opponents’ style’ (p. 64). Celtic mythology is surveyed in the following chapter, wherein Angela Loewenhagen Schrader offers descriptive accounts in turn of the banshee, pooka, leprechaun, evil eye, and the death coach.

From marginal island cultures, the volume then turns to address sex and gender. Elizabeth Labiner offers a chapter exploring how ‘playwrights explored the exciting transgression of crossdressing’ (p. 110), wherein the donning of male attire by female characters being played by male actors uncovers, so to speak, the performativity of gender. Albrecht Classen’s next chapter is a study of German traces of the myth of the Old Man of the Mountain, which explores deeper cultural exchanges between Christian Europe and the Islamic Near East. He argues that such traces speak of a greater familiarity with mythic traditions than might normally be allowed. In an earlier article, here republished as the volume’s seventh chapter, Meg Lota Brown and Kari Boyd McBride survey the contributions of a suite of women to Renaissance art and argue that, contrary to moralistic attitudes, [End Page 220] ‘women were active participants in all fields and artistic media, making a unique contribution to the history of the Renaissance’ (p. 163).

The volume then shifts from Renaissance to resistance with a chapter on the Peruvian historian Inca Garcilaso, who, James W. Fuerst suggests, ‘is the first American thinker to see armed insurrection in the service of independence as an alternative to colonial rule’ (p. 186). Lindsay Weiler-Leon’s chapter then focuses on the way that European travellers saw Ottoman and Safavid Persian women through their own cultural lenses. Sharonah Esther Fredrick brings the volume to a close with a wide-ranging chapter on the Mayan Xtabay legend, analysing interconnected questions of historical survival, indigenous adaptation, nationalism, and various cultural frames.

审阅者：

• 全球中世纪和文艺复兴时期的边缘人物作者：Meg Lota Brown
• 尼古拉斯·D·布罗迪

这本书不是关于经典的边缘历史人物，如穷人、体弱者、老人、儿童或文化他人和局外人。对其组成主题感兴趣的学者，特别是那些以文学为重点的学者，将最感兴趣。该书以阿诺·齐默恩 (Arnaud Zimmern) 的一章开头，探讨了约翰·多恩 (John Donne) 的背景和接受中的概念差距，重点关注多恩 (Donne) 被广泛引用的关于岛屿和人类的诗句的原始背景。齐默恩探讨了现代解读中明显的对比，这些解读体现了“世俗世界主义”（第 5 页），并表明多恩含义的礼仪和教会特殊性已被遗忘，有利于对台词的抽象、道德普遍主义解读。他认为，同样的现象在多恩的另一句被多次引用的关于钟声的诗句中也很明显，从而标志着从听觉上联系的教会团体向抽象的现代解读的转变，后者设想了一个共享的全球人性。

随后，本书的注意力转向英国通过东印度公司人员与日本的接触，保罗·哈特尔（Paul Hartle）提供了一个取自原始材料片段的有趣章节，提出了一个令人信服的案例，表明早期现代英国可以采取更具疑问性、思想开放、欧洲人往往将自己的文化包袱和教育观点带入这种遭遇，这一显而易见的事实让学者们着迷。凯尔·迪罗伯托随后将本书的注意力从日本带回欧亚大陆另一边的那些岛屿。他专注于英国通俗作家与清教徒作家之间文学斗争中农夫的表现。有趣的是，相互反应的动态产生了一种明显的文学现象，即每个群体都包括“在彼此的写作中夸大对手风格的存在”（第64页）。下一章对凯尔特神话进行了回顾，安吉拉·洛文哈根·施拉德依次对女妖、普卡、妖精、邪眼和死亡教练进行了描述。

从边缘岛屿文化开始，本书转向解决性别问题。伊丽莎白·拉宾纳（Elizabeth Labiner）用一章探讨了“剧作家如何探讨令人兴奋的异装越轨行为”（第 110 页），其中男性演员扮演的女性角色穿上男性服装，可以说揭示了性别的表演性。阿尔布雷希特·克拉森的下一章是对德国山中老人神话痕迹的研究，探索基督教欧洲和伊斯兰近东之间更深层次的文化交流。他认为，这些痕迹表明人们对神话传统的熟悉程度超过了通常所允许的程度。在较早的一篇文章（作为本书的第七章）中，梅格·洛塔·布朗 (Meg Lota Brown) 和卡里·博伊德·麦克布莱德 (Kari Boyd McBride) 调查了一群女性对文艺复兴时期艺术的贡献，并认为，与道德态度相反，[ End Page 220]“女性是所有领域和艺术媒体的积极参与者，为文艺复兴的历史做出了独特的贡献”（第 163 页）。

然后，本书从文艺复兴转向抵抗运动，其中有一章介绍秘鲁历史学家印加·加西拉索，詹姆斯·W·福尔斯特认为，加西拉索“是第一位将为独立服务的武装起义视为殖民统治替代方案的美国思想家”（p） .186）。林赛·韦勒-莱昂的章节随后重点讨论了欧洲旅行者如何通过自己的文化视角看待奥斯曼帝国和萨法维波斯女性。莎罗娜·埃丝特·弗雷德里克（Sharonah Esther Fredrick）以关于玛雅 Xtabay 传说的内容广泛的章节结束了这本书，分析了历史生存、土著适应、民族主义和各种文化框架等相互关联的问题。