At 12:36 PM 17.7.97 -0400, you wrote:
>Lucy's very cogent analysis of recent scholars' problems with Moore and
>Ginzburg's over-generalizations (or broad-brush group psychology) I repeat
>my suggestion about the work of Sander Gilman. He tries to examine
>stereotypes in the context of individual psychology, finding them as both
>"normal" (a needed means of categorization done by all, albeit briefly) and
>pathological (if the individual cannot let go of the stereotype to move on
>to recognition of individual's separate from the group). Because Gilman
>uses an individualistic psychology, I find it more useful as a tool to
>examine people from distant time periods. He avoids the oversimplification
>of the social constructionist position which seems to view individuals as
>stamped from socio-cultural molds. I'm sure there are those who disagree
>vehemently with the Gilman position as well, but it does move well beyond
>Douglas while still using some of her valuable hypotheses. Regards, Terry
I agree with you about Gilman for much of the same reasons you give. For
example, I have found his methodology useful for thinking about the
different ways two men wrote about Jews in early thirteenth-century Spain -
Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada and Lucas of Tuy. Both were prelates and historians
who lived at the same time in roughly the same place (Leon and Castile)..
Rodrigo certainly knew and used the work of Lucas. Yet while Lucas was what
we might call a "fanatic", blaming the Jews for poisoning the prince and
introducing heresy into Leon, and urged that all the Jews be put to death,
Rodrigo was more traditionally "Augustinian" in his views and relatively
unpolemical in tone. Moore does not help me understand this pair but
Gilman's differentiation of normal and pathological stereotypes is useful.
The problem, however, is that, while I know something of the formation of
these men, it barely scratches the surface of what Gilman is able to know
about Freud, Neitzsche, etc. There is a danger of sliding into
pop-psychology unsupported by evidence. Also, I am not crazy about what
Gilman himself has written about the Middle Ages. But then, it isn't his area.
Regards,
Lucy Pick
******************************************
Lucy K. Pick
Nuveen Instructor
Divinity School
University of Chicago
1025 East 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
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