ABSTRACT

This article argues that the ambiguity and scarcity of the evidence for the existence of the Black Madonna before the year 1500 need not prevent medievalists practicing premodern critical race studies from pursuing further study of her early history. Applying the work of Cord Whitaker on the “shimmer of blackness” in the medieval archive and of Karin Vélez on the mutability of the coloration of the Madonna across time and space, I make the case that the textual record on either side of 1500, before and after, bears witness to the Black Madonna according to discernible, coherent, and continuous rhetorical patterns, although in ways that are shimmeringly ambiguous. This record describes the Black Madonna by means of a consistent grammar of euphemism, circumlocution, negation, insinuation, and paradox that associates her darkness with materiality, mystery, and miraculous power. I trace these patterns across commentary on the Black Madonna ranging from the thirteenth to the twenty-first century, focusing in particular on the histories of Our Lady of Walsingham and Our Lady of Willesden.

摘要

本文认为，关于 1500 年之前黑色麦当娜存在的证据的模糊性和稀缺性，并不需要阻止中世纪主义者进行前现代批判性种族研究，进一步研究她的早期历史。应用 Cord Whitaker 关于中世纪档案中“黑暗的微光”的工作和 Karin Vélez 关于麦当娜色彩在时空上的可变性的工作，我证明 1500 年之前任何一方的文本记录和之后，根据可辨别的、连贯的和连续的修辞模式见证了黑色麦当娜，尽管是以闪闪发光的模棱两可的方式。这张唱片通过一贯的委婉语、含糊其辞、否定、影射和悖论的语法描述了黑麦当娜，将她的黑暗与物质性、神秘性和神奇的力量联系起来。我在从 13 世纪到 21 世纪对黑麦当娜的评论中追溯这些模式，特别关注沃尔辛厄姆圣母和威尔斯登圣母的历史。