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Hic et Haec: The Feast of Corpus Christi, the Myth of Jewish Male Menstruation, and Allegoresis

Hic et Haec: The Feast of Corpus Christi, the Myth of Jewish Male Menstruation, and Allegoresis Chapter 3 Hic et Haec: The Feast of Corpus Christi, the Myth of Jewish Male Menstruation, and Allegoresis Justin Hastings Loyola University Chicago It has been more than three decades since Sander Gilman posited that so central was Jewish alterity to the collective identity of medieval Christendom that the Jewish male body was believed quite literally to have menstruated. Since that time—and thanks to the internet—this topic has slipped the bonds of scholarly discourse to become a part of popular culture. In the intervening years, highly competent scholars have taken up this topic with rigor. This essay seeks to argue that the myth of Jewish male menstruation that coalesced in the late Middle Ages must be understood as the natural and even necessary counterpoise of the feast of Corpus Christi and that both Christ’s body and the Jewish male body as con- structed discursively must be understood within the contours of scholasticism and its dominant hermeneutic mode of allegoresis. Necessary to the feast of Corpus Christi is the doctrine of transubstantiation; this is the belief that while the wine and bread of the eucharist may retain the outward appearance of their terrestrial material, through the sacerdotal intervention of the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Essays in Medieval Studies West Virginia University Press

Hic et Haec: The Feast of Corpus Christi, the Myth of Jewish Male Menstruation, and Allegoresis

Essays in Medieval Studies , Volume 34 – Jun 5, 2019

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Publisher
West Virginia University Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Illinois Medieval Association.
ISSN
1538-4608

Abstract

Chapter 3 Hic et Haec: The Feast of Corpus Christi, the Myth of Jewish Male Menstruation, and Allegoresis Justin Hastings Loyola University Chicago It has been more than three decades since Sander Gilman posited that so central was Jewish alterity to the collective identity of medieval Christendom that the Jewish male body was believed quite literally to have menstruated. Since that time—and thanks to the internet—this topic has slipped the bonds of scholarly discourse to become a part of popular culture. In the intervening years, highly competent scholars have taken up this topic with rigor. This essay seeks to argue that the myth of Jewish male menstruation that coalesced in the late Middle Ages must be understood as the natural and even necessary counterpoise of the feast of Corpus Christi and that both Christ’s body and the Jewish male body as con- structed discursively must be understood within the contours of scholasticism and its dominant hermeneutic mode of allegoresis. Necessary to the feast of Corpus Christi is the doctrine of transubstantiation; this is the belief that while the wine and bread of the eucharist may retain the outward appearance of their terrestrial material, through the sacerdotal intervention of the

Journal

Essays in Medieval StudiesWest Virginia University Press

Published: Jun 5, 2019

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