Fantasies of the Other??Body in Middle English Oriental Romance

At the time of Middle English, the so-called Christian Europe was not, and neither were the "Saracens." Both had elements of each other and others entirely in them. Along with this imposed diversity came an attraction to, or at least a fascination with, the bodies of the enemy. Czarnowus (English and French, U. of Silesia, Poland) defines this diversity and the desire caused by it in examples from Middle English texts, including ethnic differences (perceived and real); community, Richard le Coer de Lion, and chivalric anthropology; bodies enslaved in Aucassin et Nicolete and Floris and Blancheflour; black giantesses as communal flesh in the Firumbras romances; genealogy and desire in King Horn; and transformation and regeneration in Kyng Alisaunder and The wars of Alexander. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Anna Czarnowus is a lecturer in English literature at the University of Silesia, Katowice (Poland). She teaches in the applied languages French and English programme at the Institute of Romanic Languages and Translation Studies. She has published on Chaucer and Middle English literature. Her doctoral thesis Inscription on the body: monstrous children in Middle English literature was published in 2009.