Virgin Whore

by Emma Maggie Solberg

2018 · Cornell University Press

In Virgin Whore, Emma Maggie Solberg uncovers a surprisingly prevalent theme in late English medieval literature and culture: the celebration of the Virgin Mary’s sexuality. Although history is narrated as a progressive loss of innocence, the Madonna has grown purer with each passing century. Looking to a period before the idea of her purity and virginity had ossified, Solberg uncovers depictions and interpretations of Mary, discernible in jokes and insults, icons and rituals, prayers and revelations, allegories and typologies—and in late medieval vernacular biblical drama. More unmistakable than any cultural artifact from late medieval England, these biblical plays do not exclusively interpret Mary and her virginity as fragile. In a collection of plays known as the N-Town manuscript, Mary is represented not only as virgin and mother but as virgin and promiscuous adulteress, dallying with the Trinity, the archangel Gabriel, and mortals in kaleidoscopic erotic combinations. Mary’s "virginity" signifies invulnerability rather than fragility, redemption rather than renunciation, and merciful license rather than ascetic discipline. Taking the ancient slander that Mary conceived Jesus in sin as cause for joyful laughter, the N-Town plays make a virtue of those accusations: through bawdy yet divine comedy, she redeems and exalts the crime. By revealing the presence of this promiscuous Virgin in early English drama and late medieval literature and culture—in dirty jokes told by Boccaccio and Chaucer, Malory’s Arthurian romances, and the double entendres of the allegorical Mystic Hunt of the Unicorn—Solberg provides a new understanding of Marian traditions.

The Immaculate Conception

by Emma Therese

2015 · Lulu.com

This monumental effort is based on the writings of Aquinas, Bonaventure and Scotus. Thomas, merely gave his real doctrine and opinion concerning the Immaculate Conception. However, now a favorable opportunity was offered to contribute in loving gratitude to the greater honor and glory of Mary Immaculate and of her glorious defender, D. Scotus, by presenting his doctrine concerning Mary's Immaculate Conception. Now of the three greatest scholastic Doctors, to include Bonaventure, Scotus alone gives Mary the full glory of a real and complete Immaculate Conception. In comparing the three Doctors, those portions of their works will chiefly be used which "ex professo" state and explain their position and opinion regarding this doctrine and other doctrines closely connected with it, for instance, original justice, original sin, conception, sanctification, redemption. This is indeed a pinnacle treatise regarding this issue.

African Culture Through Proverbs

by Emma Umana Clasberry

2010 · Xlibris Corporation

Proverbs are abbreviated but complete statements which convey our thought with dignity and precision. They are principles of life and provide guidance to our daily walk in areas of relationships with other human beings, physical nature such as animals and plants, spiritual phenomena and other non-spiritual elements in the universe. Proverbs give us some encouragement and hope when we are weak and in despair and feel hopeless. They give us words of admonition, warning and redirection when we fall or derail as we journey through life. In the face of threatening life encounter, we can invoke appropriate proverb to recharge our courage, energy and strength so as to squarely confront a given situation. We can also apply a proverb and act it out to get the best out of a pleasant or ugly situation. Even when we are ambivalent about a certain experience, there is always a word of wisdom to invoke and act accordingly to achieve the expected outcome. We can confidently use these wise sayings only if we know and understand their meanings. It is even better if we know their origins. Otherwise, the proverb can confuse us the more and understanding the message they intended to convey can also elude us. These African-Ibibio proverbs depict how observant our ancestors were about nature, and their knowledge of and closeness to it. Our great grandparents used the proverbs effectively and appropriately because they knew their meanings. Using them did not only save their energy but provided vividness, brevity and force to the idea or thought they attempted to articulate. They were able to transmit this wisdom from generation to generation through oral history, that is, by words of mouth, until recently. The oral method sustained us for so long partly because in the past, children and grandchildren stuck around their parents and grandparents long enough to learn from them. Another reason is that the younger generations were also interested in learning them. At the time, using a lot of proverbs in one’s speeches in social meetings and in private conversations was an index of high intelligence and wisdom, and the speaker was held in high esteem in the community. It was a source of pride and honor for and conferred dignity on the speaker as well. This work comes out of my concern that this oral method may at some point in history cease to be as effective as before in passing these words of wisdom on to future generations of Ibibio sons and daughters. If these wise sayings continue to remain unwritten, the possibility of losing this aspect of our knowledge history is imminent. Here are some of my reasons for thinking this way: (1) Present day youth leave their parent’s home to pursue their education and then to employment in cities. By so doing, the amount of time for the youth to maintain regular contact with their parents and extended family elders from whom they could have learned these wise sayings is reduced. (2) Some of them leave their country of origin at tender ages to countries with different culture, while others are born in foreign countries. In some cases, both parents and children are born outside their cultural environments. (3) If parents themselves do not know much of these wise sayings, let alone use them, they cannot offer nor transmit to their children what they do not have or know, even if the children are around them up to adulthood. (4) Many, especially among the learned, tend to lack interest in preserving even the positive aspects of their ethnic cultures, partly because they do not know or suffer from what A. J. A. Esen describes in his Ibibio Profile as “Ours-Is-Bad” and the “Foreign Is Good” syndrome. This is a psychological feeling which demeans anything pertaining to one’s ethnic culture and hails what is foreign, no matter how filthy and obnoxious the latter is. Unlike many Ibibio persons of my age or older, I was blessed with parents who had a mastery of these proverbs and used them lavishly when admonishing us and talk