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Metamorphosis and Identity
In Metamorphosis and Identity , award-winning historian Caroline Walker Bynum explores the Western obsession with the nature of change and personal identity. Focusing on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but concerned as well with Antiquity and the twentieth century, Bynum confronts the question of why intellectuals, religious leaders, and ordinary people alike exhibited a precise and persistent desire to understand how the individual both changes and remains the same.
Examining shifting conceptions of change itself in the years around 1200, Bynum situates the intense medieval curiosity about radical or substantial change in the context of specific cultural and social developments. Two images of change ― hybridity and metamorphosis ― were prominent in imaginative literature, theology, the visual arts, and natural philosophy; these sites of competing and shifting understandings each entailed different anthropological and psychological assumptions. As Bynum demonstrates in the four essays of Metamorphosis and Identity , the fascination with boundary crossing and alterity reveals an effort across different genres to delineate the regularity of nature and to establish a strong sense of personal identity, perduring even beyond the grave.
Included as the final chapter of Metamorphosis and Identity is Bynum’s 1999 NEH Jefferson Lecture, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to a scholar in the humanities.
Examining shifting conceptions of change itself in the years around 1200, Bynum situates the intense medieval curiosity about radical or substantial change in the context of specific cultural and social developments. Two images of change ― hybridity and metamorphosis ― were prominent in imaginative literature, theology, the visual arts, and natural philosophy; these sites of competing and shifting understandings each entailed different anthropological and psychological assumptions. As Bynum demonstrates in the four essays of Metamorphosis and Identity , the fascination with boundary crossing and alterity reveals an effort across different genres to delineate the regularity of nature and to establish a strong sense of personal identity, perduring even beyond the grave.
Included as the final chapter of Metamorphosis and Identity is Bynum’s 1999 NEH Jefferson Lecture, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to a scholar in the humanities.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published May 11, 2001
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About the author
Caroline Walker Bynum
20 books80 followersCaroline Walker Bynum is an American medieval scholar and University Professor emerita at Columbia University, as well as Professor emerita of Western Medieval History at the Institute for Advanced Study. She was the first woman appointed University Professor at Columbia, served as Dean of the School of General Studies, and led both the American Historical Association and the Medieval Academy of America. Her research focuses on how medieval people, particularly women, understood the human body and physicality within spiritual and theological contexts, highlighting female piety and the role of women in late-medieval Europe. She has received numerous honors and taught at Harvard, Washington, Columbia, and Princeton.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 16, 2023
If a twelfth century thinker believed in Miracles, Transubstantiation and the Resurrection of the Body, you'd think werwolves would be no problem. But as Bynum explores her topic in these essays, it becomes obvious that the clash between what thinkers accepted as part of their theology, and what they were adamant could not happen in the world they lived in, could be, unsurprisingly, contradictory.
Medieval people were no more gullible than their modern counterparts, indeed, the church's attitude towards miracles was much more skeptical than most modern people might believe, but given some of the 'first principles', medieval theology was a testing ground for even the most subtle of intellects. Bynum does a fine job of tiptoeing through the contradictions of st. Bernard's thinking without ever accepting the conclusion her evidence seems to suggest that the man was essentially confused.
The essays move around the topic, and because they were originally directed at different audiences, they vary in tone from the very specific linguistic analysis of St. Bernard's attempt to have one plus one equal two separate but joined ones, to more general discussions. Rather than driving a straight line towards any kind of conclusion, Bynum provides a great deal to think about.
I read this book because it was cited in a study of The Mabinogion, where metamorphosis and other forms of transformation are an accepted fact of life in the stories. Perhaps the value of Bynum's study, for a reader without a specific interest in St. Bernard, is the opening up of new ways of thinking about what's happening in those stories. Particularly, how the stories might have been part of a contemporary discourse of identity.
Gerald of Wales and his Irish Werwolf make several appearances, but the story seems to be taken out of the context of Gerald's own love of stories, and his willingness to report marvels and attempt to explain them. The story did trouble Gerald, but whether this was because it became the focus of other people's skepticism or his own is hard to tell. It has been suggested by Will Parker that the Irish priest in the story was misunderstood, in a complex interplay between Irish words for outcasts and their latin translations, but a belief in werwolves and transformations was a common belief amongst the people outside the world of Literate Latin theologians.
The focus on Werwolves is understandable, but limiting. While Bynum accepts that transformation was becoming a feature of vernacular literature at the time, her examples are limited. I was waiting for the Fourth branch to make an appearance, but it never did.
Pages 195-275 are devoted to notes. While these refer the reader to a wealth of material, there is no bibliography. Hence four stars instead of five.
Medieval people were no more gullible than their modern counterparts, indeed, the church's attitude towards miracles was much more skeptical than most modern people might believe, but given some of the 'first principles', medieval theology was a testing ground for even the most subtle of intellects. Bynum does a fine job of tiptoeing through the contradictions of st. Bernard's thinking without ever accepting the conclusion her evidence seems to suggest that the man was essentially confused.
The essays move around the topic, and because they were originally directed at different audiences, they vary in tone from the very specific linguistic analysis of St. Bernard's attempt to have one plus one equal two separate but joined ones, to more general discussions. Rather than driving a straight line towards any kind of conclusion, Bynum provides a great deal to think about.
I read this book because it was cited in a study of The Mabinogion, where metamorphosis and other forms of transformation are an accepted fact of life in the stories. Perhaps the value of Bynum's study, for a reader without a specific interest in St. Bernard, is the opening up of new ways of thinking about what's happening in those stories. Particularly, how the stories might have been part of a contemporary discourse of identity.
Gerald of Wales and his Irish Werwolf make several appearances, but the story seems to be taken out of the context of Gerald's own love of stories, and his willingness to report marvels and attempt to explain them. The story did trouble Gerald, but whether this was because it became the focus of other people's skepticism or his own is hard to tell. It has been suggested by Will Parker that the Irish priest in the story was misunderstood, in a complex interplay between Irish words for outcasts and their latin translations, but a belief in werwolves and transformations was a common belief amongst the people outside the world of Literate Latin theologians.
The focus on Werwolves is understandable, but limiting. While Bynum accepts that transformation was becoming a feature of vernacular literature at the time, her examples are limited. I was waiting for the Fourth branch to make an appearance, but it never did.
Pages 195-275 are devoted to notes. While these refer the reader to a wealth of material, there is no bibliography. Hence four stars instead of five.
March 17, 2015
I read Caroline Walker Bynum's *Metamorphosis and Identity* as part of my research for a paper I'm about to give on identity in the medieval poem *Sir Orfeo*, so I read it with double perspective: first, for its usefulness for my research (yes, I'm willing to use a book and then just set it aside), and second, for its enjoyability. *M&I* was a joy on both counts. Bynum's discussions of identity and werewolves (*Buffy the Vampire Slayer* even gets a mention) provided me with new insights and approaches to take regarding my topic and even gave me the inspiration I needed for my title. Bynum manages a style that is both erudite and easy to read, and her scholarship is of course phenomenal.
Over the course of the text, Bynum uses werewolf tales to show how Medieval culture perceived the issue of identity, that identity was considered to persist through changes (such as becoming a werewolf) from hybridity and metamorphosis. She calls on Dante, Ovid, Marie de France, and Gerald of Wales to illustrate her argument, and concludes that
"Our concern with how we can change yet be the same thing — our fascination with the question of identity in all its varieties — is inherited from traditions. The identity we carry with us questions — and by questioning conforms — itself. In this sense, we are all Narcissus, as we are all also the werewolf, a constantly new thing that is nonetheless the same" (p. 189).
What surprized me about the book is that it comprises four lectures Bynum gave on various occasions and that those lectures are presented with no attempt to blend them into more cohesive book chapters. I'm not sure whether this omission matters, but it did recall for me an on-going discussion about expectations in the humanities about how books ought to be presented and whether the requirements for dissertations should be changed to allow collections of essays to make it more possible for students to complete their doctoral degrees.
Over the course of the text, Bynum uses werewolf tales to show how Medieval culture perceived the issue of identity, that identity was considered to persist through changes (such as becoming a werewolf) from hybridity and metamorphosis. She calls on Dante, Ovid, Marie de France, and Gerald of Wales to illustrate her argument, and concludes that
"Our concern with how we can change yet be the same thing — our fascination with the question of identity in all its varieties — is inherited from traditions. The identity we carry with us questions — and by questioning conforms — itself. In this sense, we are all Narcissus, as we are all also the werewolf, a constantly new thing that is nonetheless the same" (p. 189).
What surprized me about the book is that it comprises four lectures Bynum gave on various occasions and that those lectures are presented with no attempt to blend them into more cohesive book chapters. I'm not sure whether this omission matters, but it did recall for me an on-going discussion about expectations in the humanities about how books ought to be presented and whether the requirements for dissertations should be changed to allow collections of essays to make it more possible for students to complete their doctoral degrees.
August 21, 2008
Medieval werewolves, monsters, gender transformations, and the ephemeral nature of one's physicality in general. These are a collection of the mighty Bynum's essays, and thus can be more fragmented than flowing, but really, isn't it more fitting that way?
I love it when a medievalist can transform the way I see myself.
And god, I wish there had been a chance to put Bynum in a cage with Angela Carter and make them fight. Oh, yes.
I love it when a medievalist can transform the way I see myself.
And god, I wish there had been a chance to put Bynum in a cage with Angela Carter and make them fight. Oh, yes.
November 14, 2024
the descriptions won’t tell you this, but this is a book about werewolves (among other things—but mostly werewolves)
September 5, 2024
I had come across this work many times whilst researching Sir Orfeo and now it was finallly time to read it myself. Sadly it wasn't quite what I was looking for but Caroline Walker Bynum does present some interesting thoughts and I hope to end up using them in my thesis.
November 18, 2022
Here lately, I’ve been reading a lot of texts about lycanthropy and identity and this collection of work is the least straightforward of them all. The author comments on certain aspects of the identity dynamic without asserting anything in regard to them. The topics themselves are acknowledged, but there is not much speculation. If you are wanting to begin research on identity, lycanthropy, and metamorphosis, then this is a good foundational text.
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April 30, 2018Literally the last one hundred pages of this book is notes. If I'd realised that, I would've finished it the other day.
Also, why do NONE of the books about werewolves I've read actually talk about the werewolves I need them to talk about? I have specific werewolf needs and I'm being failed by academia.
Also, why do NONE of the books about werewolves I've read actually talk about the werewolves I need them to talk about? I have specific werewolf needs and I'm being failed by academia.
December 25, 2012
Geez louise! I love this book! I'm especially partial to all the stuff about Ovid in it, and the essay on Gerald of Wales.
November 22, 2015
Great book looking at the role of change of state within werewolf lore in the west. Accessible, enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews