In the Doorway of All Worlds

"""In the Doorway of All Worlds combines the first in-depth, comprehensive study of Berceo's hagiographical production with an innovative theoretical approach and sound scholarship. Robin M. Bower's book is a brilliant addition to Berceo, mester de clerec�a, and medieval Iberian literary and cultural studies.""--Pablo Ancos, Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Wisconsin-Madison ""Bower's readings of Berceo's hagiographies reveal Berceo's poetic vernacular to be a product of its surroundings and his own genius, raising important questions about the notion of context as applied to the Middle Ages and the limitations of didacticism to study the period. In the Doorway of All Worlds unfetters meaning for Berceo's hagiographies, both the meanings contained in his texts and the meaning of meaning itself.""--Heather Bamford, Associate Professor of Spanish, The George Washington University ""In this abundantly detailed study, Bower simultaneously sheds new light on the poetic affordances of the mester de clerec�a while freeing Gonzalo de Berceo's hagiographies from their traditional association with the mester as a genre. Bower shows how Berceo's crafting of saints' lives was far more than the faithful adaptation of Latin sources by the humble cleric portrayed in his own author portraits. Rather, his 'romanz paladino' constituted a major development in vernacular poetics that captured orality as well as a highly sophisticated, reflective, and authorizing devotional discourse. In the Doorway of All Worlds reveals Berceo's poetic artistry in all of its theological, political, and metaphorical complexity.""--Emily C. Francomano, Professor of Spanish, Georgetown University ""Bower examines Berceo's four hagiographic texts as a unified body that manifests both poetic complexity and authorial autonomy. She contends that while hagiographies confound modern notions of narrative, they in fact display the unique capacity of bringing meaning to the mysteries narrated in biographies of the saints. On a much broader scale, Bower demonstrates how the saint, recast as hero, was a central component in the construction of social meaning for the thirteenth-century receptors of these texts.""--Connie L. ScarboroughN, Professor Emerita of Spanish, Texas Tech University"