Introduction: Representing Others in Medieval Iberia

Abstract

In a series of narratives produced between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, the Iberian go-between leaves the Arab court of Cordoba to negotiate the in-between—the hybrid cultural spaces that define medieval Iberia.¹ In Representing Others, we witness this go-between as she not only brings lovers together, but also unites the exiled Andalusi authors that created her with the lost courtly world of al-Andalus. The go-between narrative of courtly seduction proved particularly appealing in medieval Iberia, where complex cultural, linguistic, and religious boundaries and constructions were in constant transformation, as historical and social events during the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries brought about a succession of significant changes in political power. The go-between was especially apt at moments of such change as she was the definition of instability itself. Like the exiled courtiers of Iberia, the go-between was always in motion, in a constant process of transformation, and as such she was the perfect vehicle for representing and redefining the changing boundaries of Iberian identity. The go-between’s activities in the in-between space of Iberian fiction (between lover and beloved and between Andalusi past and future) become the subject of Iberian narratives of courtly desire.²