{"product_id":"machines-of-the-mind-9780226776453","title":"Machines of the Mind","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn Machines of the Mind, Katharine Breen proposes that medieval personifications should be understood neither as failed novelistic characters nor as instruments of heavy-handed didacticism. She argues that personifications are instead powerful tools for thought that help us to remember and manipulate complex ideas, testing them against existing moral and political paradigms. Specifically, different types of medieval personification should be seen as corresponding to positions in the rich and nuanced medieval debate over universals. Breen identifies three different types of personificationPlatonic, Aristotelian, and Prudentianthat gave medieval writers a surprisingly varied spectrum with which to paint their characters.    Through a series of new readings of major authors and works, from Plato to Piers Plowman, Breen illuminates how medieval personifications embody the full range of positions between philosophical realism and nominalism, varying according to the convictions of individua\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eMachines of the Mind\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the most thorough and insightful texts on personification available. . . . Breen is a meticulous writer, and the book is successful in its aims. Taking on a large wealth of information and literature in stride, Breen writes out a detailed history. . . . Audiences who have a critical background in personification will find this book to be invaluable to their studies.\" * Comitatus *\u003cbr\u003e\" Breen’s \u003ci\u003eMachines of the Mind\u003c\/i\u003e traces the formal and historical development of three traditions of personification that, as she argues throughout the book, are available to medieval authors: Prudentian, Platonic, and Aristotelian. She describes how each type of personification functions as a pliable and complex 'engine of thought' that allows writers and readers to think through difficult questions.\" * Qui Parle *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eMachines of the Mind\u003c\/i\u003e persuades its readers to think more systematically about the types and uses of personification. Breen clears away some forty years of confusion about medieval philosophical positions on realism and so-called nominalism, clearly differentiating them from the postmodern nominalism of twentieth-century high theory and imaginatively reconsidering their implications for literary representation. Her schema will allow future scholars to differentiate Platonic, Neoplatonic, moderate realist, and nominalist strategies for personification while also recognizing that many medieval works may employ multiple types at once. This book will remain a reference point for many years to come.” -- Fiona Somerset, author of Feeling like Saints: Lollard Writings after Wyclif\u003cbr\u003e\"Machines of the Mind: Personification in Medieval Literature is a powerful and original intervention in medieval allegory studies and, more broadly, literary history and theory. This is a book that will reshape our thinking about the interaction between poetics and philosophy in antiquity and the Middle Ages.\" -- Rita Copeland * Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies *\u003cbr\u003e\"Machines of the Mind: Personification in Medieval Literature is a powerful and original intervention in medieval allegory studies and, more broadly, literary history and theory. This is a book that will reshape our thinking about the interaction between poetics and philosophy in antiquity and the Middle Ages.\" -- Rita Copeland * Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part I  Prudentian Personification\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1  \u003ci\u003eConsecratus Manu\u003c\/i\u003e: Men Forming Gods Forming Men\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2  How to Fight like a Girl: Christianizing Personification in the \u003ci\u003ePsychomachia\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part II  Neoplatonic Personification\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3  \u003ci\u003eEx Uno Omnia\u003c\/i\u003e: Plato’s Forms and Daemons\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4  Oh, Nurse! The Boethian Daemon\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part III  Aristotelian Personification\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5  \u003ci\u003eE Pluribus Unum\u003c\/i\u003e: Abstracting Universals from Particulars\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6  Dreaming of Aristotle in the \u003ci\u003eSonge d’Enfer\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eWinner and Waster\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 7  A Good Body Is Hard to Find: Putting Personification through Its Paces in \u003ci\u003ePiers Plowman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49400117068119,"sku":"9780226776453","price":91.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226776453.jpg?v=1730469780","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/machines-of-the-mind-9780226776453","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}