Alterities: On Methodology in Medieval Literary Studies

Medieval literary studies hold a privileged position in methodological and theoretical argumentation. The privilege is based on the limitedness of and the in-immediate access to their “material. ” The latter is created by the philological barrier that virtually keeps theoretical and/or methodological intruders out. In that sense medieval literary studies potentially enjoy a sanctuary privilege: theoretical and methodological novelties may enter the sanctuary only if the philologically trained so warrant. That is, literary medievalists are very much in control of theoretical and/or methodological import because, due to their philological training, they are the only ones who can handle the “material ” in the first place.1 Due to the limitedness of their material, medieval literary studies do, however, have another kind of privilege. The concept of some monolithic entity called “the Middle Ages ” creates a kind of laboratory situation where new approaches/methods/theories can furnish quick results. Since the Middle Ages—or any period within it, or any ensemble of phenomena fro