Mandeville's Intolerance: The Contest for Souls and Sacred Sites in The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

As the first medieval text to combine the matter of the East with the matter of the Holy Land, <italic>The Travels</italic> circulated widely in over 300 manuscripts, making it an important text when studying medieval Christian attitudes toward non-Christians. Although many scholars point to <italic>The Travels</italic> as a tolerant text ahead of its time, a historicized approach reveals that Mandeville's project is better understood in terms of his intolerant universalism. I argue that in casting non-Christians as proto-Christians who stand as evidence of Christianity's global spiritual hegemony, the author appropriates and consumes them in service of his universalist agenda. I suggest that reading the text in terms of this intolerant universalism is a more productive approach to questions surrounding <italic>The Travels</italic> including Mandeville's demonization of Jews: an exception to his "generous" treatment of non-Christians), his concern for the Holy Land, and his reasons for combining the matter of the Holy Land with the matter of the East.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English and American Literature

Year dc:date.available

2009

Author dc:creator

• Patterson, Robert

Contributors dc:contributor

• David Lawton

• Literature
• Medieval
• English
• General
• Anti-Jewishness
• Anti-Judaism
• Crusade
• Mandeville
• Travel
• Universalism

Language dc:language

English (en)

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7936/K76M34X6

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:openscholarship.wustl.edu:etd-1271