The senses and their understanding by the medieval laity is an exciting arena in which many authors of the golden age of Middle English vernacular literature exercised their exegetical ability and literary craftsmanship. This book examines the representation of the divine by the anonymous fourteenth-century Pearl-poet, through a close reading of his three “scriptural” Middle English poems, Cleanness, Patience and Pearl, against the background of the culture of sensorium in late medieval England.

In this book, individual corporeal senses and general ideas about sensory perception will be investigated, as well as the non-physical senses. By bringing the Pearl-poet’s treatment of the sensorium－both of God and of humans－into the focus of attention, Dr Bao illustrates how human interpretation of sense-perceptible signs, and their decision to regulate sensory experience accordingly, play a significant role in the poet’s “vernacular theology”, and in the spiritual life of late medieval English laity.

14世紀中古英語頭韻復興運動中的翹楚詩人“珍珠”的全部作品僅有一份手稿存世（大英圖書館柯頓·尼祿A.x手稿）。本書立足於對《珍珠》手稿中三首基於經文的長詩（《清潔》《堅忍》《珍珠》）之中古英語原文的訓詁和細讀，研究“珍珠”詩人對神性的理解，並探討詩人對中世紀感官文化及相關思想史背景的反芻。

無論在理論或實踐層麵,感官及對感官認知的態度在中世紀人道德、宗教、情感模式的形成中都扮演關鍵的角色，深入研究感官文化的一個重要途徑就是文學作品。本書每一章節聚焦《珍珠》手稿的一部作品，研究其中示例人物如何通過規範自己的感官經驗，將“抑肉揚靈”的古典感官論中被貶抑的“身體感官”轉化為一種通往救贖的路徑。本書還將通過探討“內感官”“精神感官”“神秘感官”等概念在文本中的呈現，比較中世紀感官論與現代感官論的關鍵差異。作者在語文學—文學解讀的基礎上，同時考察8—15世紀手抄本中對感官的圖像學錶述，試圖梳理並書寫一種形成於圖文互動過程中的文學感官史。

Huiyi Bao (PhD, University College Dublin) is Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Fudan University. Her research focuses on Old and Middle English poetry, and on the textual-pictorial engagement in illustrated medieval manuscripts. She is the author of one monograph in Chinese, The Art of Middle English Lyrics (2018), and of more than ten peer-reviewed journal articles both in English and in Chinese. Medievalist, poet and literary translator, she has published two books of poetry, A Pagan Book of Hours (2012) and I Sit on the Edge of the Volcano (2016); one book of essays, Annal of the Emerald Isle (2015); and one book of criticism, Scriptorium (2018). She is the translator of twelve books from English to Chinese, including Complete Poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Ariel by Sylvia Plath, Good Bones by Margaret Atwood, and Immram and Isle: Works of Four Contemporary Irish Poets. She was awarded the China Bookstore Prize, DJS-Poetry East West Award, and Literature Ireland Translator’s Bursary. She taught at Trinity College Dublin before joining Fudan, and is currently vice-director of the China-Australia Creative Writing Centre (CAWC) at Fudan, and editor-in-chief of Homings and Departures: Selected Poems from Contemporary China and Australia (2018).

包慧怡，本科畢業於復旦大學英文係，愛爾蘭都柏林大學英文係中世紀文學博士，現為復旦大學英文係講師。研究古英語與中古英語詩歌，及中世紀手抄本中的圖文互動。著有學術專著《中古英語抒情詩的藝術》（2018），在國內外核心期刊發錶學術論文十餘篇。已齣版詩集《我坐在火山的最邊緣》(2016)、《異教時辰書》(2012)，文學評論集《繕寫室》(2018)，散文集《翡翠島編年》(2015)；並齣版譯著十二種，包括伊麗莎白·畢肖普詩集《唯有孤獨恒常如新》、西爾維婭·普拉斯詩集《愛麗爾》、瑪格麗特·阿特伍德散文詩集《好骨頭》、《島嶼和遠航：當代愛爾蘭四詩人選》等。獲中國首屆書店文學奬、DJS—詩東西評論奬、愛爾蘭文學交流會國際譯者奬。曾任教於都柏林聖三一學院，現任復旦大學中澳創意寫作中心副主任，主編有《歸巢與齣發：中澳當代詩選》(2018)。