Beatrice, this was splendid. It's exciting to see two young scholars who see faith as a complement to learning, not as a stumbling block. You touched on areas that I've been interested in for decades,such as close textual reading, though my experience is limited to an exposure at the undergraduate level to close textual reading in classical and modern political philosophy. A decision to pursue a legal career took me from further academic involvement. A strong interest and continued reading have allowed me to keep a finger in. The most important corollary I've taken from my earlier studies has been to try and understand the author as they understood themselves. This allows for the richness of their theological (or not, as the case may be) cultural and literary makeup to inform us. I'm looking forward to the next installment!
I'm so glad you enjoyed this! This is my absolute passion project and I have some fantastic people lined up, Jasmine is a real gem of a scholar! I completely agree re understanding an author how they understood themselves. My biggest issue with various reception theories is that texts are written to communicate something in a certain way - the intention of communication on the author's part cannot be disregarded. Trying to take ourselves out of our own selves and into another person's time and perspective is the least we can do!
I couldn't agree more. The temptation to impose sociological, ideological and even scientific perspectives on, especially premodern authors, has to a large extent put us in Plato's cave. We aren't seeing the author, we are getting lost in the shadows we created ourselves. Close reading textual scholarship is a noble vocation to help us get out of that cave!
@@beatrixscudeler Efforts to bring "living faith" to bear on literary scholarship (and other disciplines) has so much potential! I'm reminded of what the 20th century historian, Christopher Dawson, was trying to do, culminating in his taking the Stillman Chair for Catholic Studies at Harvard in the late 50s. Unfortunately, his efforts were impeded by health realities, and the waning of the 20th century intellectual Catholic Revival into the 1960s.
Thanks for this. I'm wondering how many young scholars were motivated to pursue medieval English literature through the examples of Tolkien and CS Lewis? I was fascinated early on by their imaginative works, and then discovered that Tolkien was a great scholar of Old English, Norse etc, and Lewis, a scholar of Medieval and Renaissance literature. I never went further academically, but they made an impact on my reading further in those disciplines.
I imagine so many! Tolkien and Lewis are not popular in academia right now, but their influence is still considerable. I really wish my knowledge of medieval literature was wider!
This was an enjoyable conversation!! I would recommend Dr. Beth Allison Barr's "The Making of Biblical Womanhood". She is a medieval scholar and focuses on the elevation of women in the church in the medieval era and theology behind that. Very fascinating.
Beatrice, in a previous comment on another video, I said I never leave comments on RU-vid, but now I'm making lots on your videos! Your channel is great. Thank you for sharing your reading and insight! Hearing Jasmine speak was really inspiring. I'm deeply edified by her. I hope to listen to her podcasts. Please have her on again another time to speak more! (Also, you probably already noticed, but, saying, "Mhm" during the video really interrupted the audio quality. Maybe you could improve this before the next interview?)
