Menocal, Maria Rosa 1953-

PERSONAL:

Born April 9, 1953, in Havana, Cuba; naturalized U.S. citizen. Education: University of Pennsylvania, A.B., 1973, M.A., 1975, Ph.D., 1979.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Foreign Languages, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520.

CAREER:

Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, Mellon fellow in comparative literature, 1979-80; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, assistant professor of Romance languages, 1980-87; Yale University, New Haven, CT, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, and director of Whitney Humanities Center, 1988—.

MEMBER:

Modern Language Association, Linguistic Society of America, American Association of Teachers of Italian.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(With Helen McFie and Luigi Sera) Primavera: An Introduction to Italian Language and Culture, Holt, Rinehart, Winston (New York, NY), 1983.

The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1987.

Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth: From Borges to Boccaccio, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 1991.

Shards of Love: Exile and the Origins of the Lyric, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 1994.

(Editor, with Raymond P. Scheindlin and Michael Sells) The Literature of Al-Andalus, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2002.

The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2004.

Contributor of articles to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Maria Rosa Menocal's book The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain documents the culture and history of the Andalusian kingdom at its high point. The book covers seven centuries, beginning with the Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula, and ending with the expulsion from Spain of all Muslims and Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. Between those two turning points, there was a period of about three hundred years when the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures coexisted peacefully and harmoniously. Menocal shows how the three religious groups adapted to each other and coexisted for so long in Spain, creating a unique culture. She does so by telling the stories of sixteen individuals who lived during this era when, although the Muslim culture dominated and influenced the Jewish and Christian subcultures, all three had considerable respect for one another. In an epilog, the author speculates on the lessons this period has to offer the contemporary world, which is marked by tensions between these same religious groups.

"This study of medieval Spain, written for a nonacademic audience, shows that a powerful Islamic society and its committed Christian opponents were once capable of contending in arms, for mastery of a rich territory, without losing their sense of mutual respect," remarked Stephen Schwartz in the National Review. "Al-Andalus, the southern Iberian province in which Arab governance was consolidated, produced some of the greatest cultural achievements of Islamic civilization; architecture and philosophy are the best known. The very same region—and its fabled cities, Cordoba, Granada, and Sevilla—also nurtured the Jewish intellect, and provided a prosperous home for Christians."

Menocal's book is "splendid," stated Robert Kuttner, in an American Prospect review. Some reviewers, such as Charles E. Butterworth in Middle East Policy, regretted that the author did not go into even greater depth with certain aspects of her subject. Yet Butterworth concluded: "Great plaudits are due Maria Rosa Menocal for the fascinating, most appealing, and ever so positive brief history she has provided." A Publishers Weekly writer praised the author's "engaging prose and lucid insights," which "provide glimpses into a little-discussed chapter of religious history." Menocal's book calls to mind a novel, according to John Green in Booklist. He stated that this "seductively written history" stands as a monument to past achievements and as an inspiration for the future.

In her book The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage, Menocal attempts to bring to light the considerable influence that the Arab world has had on Western culture as a whole. Because of anti-Arab feeling, she believes, Arab contributions to European culture have always been downplayed. Menocal shows the many ways that Arab culture has infused the European world, especially during the Renaissance. This book mounts "a spirited challenge to a cultural orthodoxy that has prevailed for rather too long," according to Richard Hitchcock in Medium Aevum.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Prospect, November, 2004, Robert Kuttner, "What Would Jefferson Do? An Essay on Faith, Terror, and Democracy," p. 31.

Booklist, May 15, 2002, John Green, review of The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, p. 1572.

Choice, July, 1988, L.L. Bronson, review of The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage, p. 1690; February, 2003, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 1050.

Christian Science Monitor, July 25, 2002, Jane Lampman, "Religious Tolerance before It Was Hip," section 2, p. 15.

Comparative Literature, winter, 1991, Luce Lopez-Baralt, review of The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, pp. 99-103; summer, 1996, A.M. Jeannet, review of Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth: From Borges to Boccaccio, pp. 307-311; winter, 2002, review of Ornament of the World, p. 14.

Comparative Literature Studies, annual, 1996, review of Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth, p. 307; summer, 1996, review of Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth, p. 307.

Hispanic Review, summer, 1989, Charles S.F. Burnett, review of The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, pp. 359-361; spring, 1999, John Dagenais, reviews of Shards of Love: Exile and the Origins of the Lyric and Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth, pp. 250-253; spring, 2003, review of The Literature of Al-Andalus, p. 271.

Journal of the American Oriental Society, April-June, 1991, Julie Scott Meisami, review of The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, pp. 343-352; April-June, 1996, Julie Scott Meisami, review of Shards of Love, pp. 313-316.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2002, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 388.

Library Journal, September 15, 2002, Clay Williams, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 75.

Medium Aevum, spring, 1993, G.H. McWilliam, review of Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth, p. 150; spring, 1994, Richard Hitchcock, review of The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, pp. 177-179; fall, 2003, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 378.

Middle East Policy, winter, 2004, Charles E. Butterworth, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 148.

Modern Language Notes, March, 1992, Bernhard Teuber, review of Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth, pp. 150-152; December, 1996, Stephen G. Nichols, "‘Supple Like Water’: Lyric and Diaspora," pp. 990-1009.

National Review, June 17, 2002, Stephen Schwartz, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 57.

Notes and Queries, December, 1989, Marcella McCarthy, review of The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, pp. 490-491; June, 1992, Charlotte C. Morse, review of Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth, pp. 208-210.

Publishers Weekly, April 29, 2002, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 62.

Reference & Research Book News, June, 1994, review of Shards of Love, p. 44; May, 2003, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 38.

Renaissance Quarterly, winter, 1993, Karla Taylor, review of Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth, pp. 819-820.

Romance Philology, February, 1993, L.P. Harvey, review of The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, pp. 366-367.

Shofar, January, 2003, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 196.

Speculum, October, 1988, Dorothee Metlitzki, review of The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, pp. 957-959; October, 1996, Diana de Armas Wilson, review of Shards of Love, pp. 980-983; October, 2002, review of The Literature of Al-Andalus, p. 1359; July, 2004, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 801.

Times Literary Supplement, June, 2001, Geert Jan Van Gelder, review of The Literature of Al-Andalus, p. 7.

U.S. Catholic, August, 2003, Peter Gilmour, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 6.

Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2002, Claudia Roden, review of The Ornament of the World, p. 12.

ONLINE

BookLoons,http://www.bookloons.com/ (April 30, 2007), Hilary Williamson, review of The Ornament of the World.

Jewish Press,http://www.thejewishpress.com/ (August 7, 2002), Michael Skakum, review of The Ornament of the World.

Society for Crypto Judaic Studies,http://cryptojews.com/ (April 30, 2007), Arthur Benveniste, review of The Ornament of the World.

Time Warner Bookmark,http://www.twbookmark.com/ (April 27, 2007), biographical information about Maria Rosa Menocal.

Yale University Web site,http://www.yale.edu/ (April 22, 2007), biographical information about Maria Rosa Menocal.