Professor Bansen-Harp publishes article

Lisa Bansen-Harp, Assistant Professor of French, published an article in the December 2011 issue of Medievalia et Humanistica: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Culture (vol. 37).  Entitled  “Ironic Patterning and Numerical Composition in the Vie de saint Alexis: Form and Effect / Affect,” the article examines the structuring of the earliest poetic text in the French language.  It analyzes how the poet’s use of dramatic and biblical modes of irony allowed this account of an inscrutable ascetic saint to touch a broad audience.  The text is important not only for its literary beauty, but also for its pivotal position at a time when the Church was reaching out to laypeople, using their language as well as Latin to preach and teach.