Religious Differences: Subjectivity and Alterity in the Chanson de Roland

摘要

This dissertation seeks to explore how theological and philosophical traditions during the medieval period lead to the establishment of views on the nature of God, the best manner of living, as well as the best way of remaining faithful to a proper mode of religious worship. Furthermore, this study proposes that the adherence to such religious truths played a significant role in fashioning subjectivities, while simultaneously determining one religious traditions interaction with other religious communities. I argue that by identifying with a certain conception of God, the worldview presented in the “Song of Roland” comes to identify the themes of power/chivalry, subjective becoming, and fear as being inextricably linked in the Franks reaction to the Saracen world. Religious identification thus serves to establish dichotomies, worldviews, and religious differences that ultimately justify violent extremism and genocide. My work contributes and innovates upon much of the existing scholarship, yet I break new ground in the field given that the theoretical framework I have chosen to employ seeks to fully develop the philosophical, political, and theological consequences of early Christian anthropology.