Böcker av Alastair (Yale University Minnis

'Phantom limb pain' designates the sensations which seem to emanate from limbs that in reality are missing. The phrase was coined by the American Civil War surgeon, Weir Mitchell, in reference to his fictional amputee, George Dedlow. Contemporary neuroscience holds that the brain encloses a schema which covers the whole body, and asserts its unity even if certain parts are missing. Reading backwards from Dedlow's sufferings, Alastair Minnis traces the medieval precedents and parallels, focusing on Augustine and Dante, who subscribed to the notion of a 'body in the soul'. Dante's souls in purgatory self-prosthesize with aerial phantoms as they long for the full embodiment which only the resurrection can bring. Is a complete body necessary for personhood? And how can the gamut of human feelings be run if parts or the entirety of one's body does not exist? Combining medieval studies and contemporary neuroscience, this absorbing study explores the fascinating and surprising history of phantom pain.

A lively and accessible introduction that will be invaluable to readers new to Chaucer or familiar with his work through The Canterbury Tales. Leading Chaucer scholar Alastair Minnis offers an account of the poet's known writings, their historical and literary contexts, and the diverse ways in which they have been interpreted over the centuries.

Leading critic Alastair Minnis investigates the relationships between authority and the vernacular in a range of texts from late medieval England. The significance of 'vernacularity' is discussed with reference to court patronage of literature, textual commentary, heretical doctrine, and tales of suspicious saints and relics.