The Medieval Fold / The New Middle Ages (PDF)

Suzanne M. Verderber is an associate professor in the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute.

"The Medieval Fold may be the first and only study of its kind discerning the emergence of subjectivity through fold-theory. Through limpid readings in theology, history, and literature Verderber utterly changes received ideas about the twelfth-century Renaissance. Showing how various documents attest to a process where individuals, turning subjection back upon itself, acquire subjectivity, she makes clear how a radical reflexivity marks a culture at once remote and at the core of our being. Elegantly written, the book invites us to read the medieval canon as we never have before.' Tom Conley, Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor, Departments of Romance Languages and Visual/Environmental Studies, Harvard University, USA

"The Medieval Fold, as an interesting and profound interdisciplinary study, sheds considerable light on the controversial twelfth century and the relationship between the Middle Ages and modernity." - Mediaevistik

"The Medieval Fold is a significant contribution to the history of the human subject in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance . . . . [and] is important reading for anyone who is interested in medieval cultural studies, the question of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, courtly love, and for anyone who seeks to understand the way that language becomes discourse." - The Medieval Review

"An intellectual tour de force synthesizing master concepts of Nietzsche, Foucault, Deleuze, and Lacan in a stunning analysis of emerging sacred and vernacular cultural practices in Old French lyric and romance. Original and bold, this account reveals the permeability of categories separating individual and institution, subjectivity and ritual in medieval French culture." - Stephen G. Nichols, James M. Beall Professor Emeritus of French and Humanities, Johns Hopkins University, USA

"In The Medieval Fold, Suzanne Verderber convincingly complicates scholarship on the emergence of the individual in the twelfth century, situating herself