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An examination into aspects of the sexual as depicted in a variety of medieval texts, from Chaucer and Malory to romance and alchemical treatises.
It is often said that the past is a foreign country where they do things differently, and perhaps no type of "doing" is more fascinating than sexual desires and behaviours. Our modern view of medieval sexuality is characterised by a polarising dichotomy between the swooning love-struck knights and ladies of romance on one hand, and the darkly imagined and misogyny of an unenlightened "medieval" sexuality on the other. British medieval sexual culture also exhibits such dualities through the influential paradigms of sinner or saint, virgin or whore, and protector or defiler of women. However, such sexual identities are rarely coherent or stable, and it is in the grey areas, the interstices between normative modes of sexuality, that we find the most compelling instances of erotic frisson and sexual expression.
This collection of essays brings together a wide-ranging discussion of the sexual possibilities and fantasies of medieval Britain as they manifest themselves in the literature of the period. Taking as their matter texts and authors as diverse as Chaucer, Gower, Dunbar, Malory, alchemical treatises, and romances, the contributions reveal a surprising variety of attitudes, strategies and sexual subject positions.
It is often said that the past is a foreign country where they do things differently, and perhaps no type of "doing" is more fascinating than sexual desires and behaviours. Our modern view of medieval sexuality is characterised by a polarising dichotomy between the swooning love-struck knights and ladies of romance on one hand, and the darkly imagined and misogyny of an unenlightened "medieval" sexuality on the other. British medieval sexual culture also exhibits such dualities through the influential paradigms of sinner or saint, virgin or whore, and protector or defiler of women. However, such sexual identities are rarely coherent or stable, and it is in the grey areas, the interstices between normative modes of sexuality, that we find the most compelling instances of erotic frisson and sexual expression.
This collection of essays brings together a wide-ranging discussion of the sexual possibilities and fantasies of medieval Britain as they manifest themselves in the literature of the period. Taking as their matter texts and authors as diverse as Chaucer, Gower, Dunbar, Malory, alchemical treatises, and romances, the contributions reveal a surprising variety of attitudes, strategies and sexual subject positions.
Price: $95.00
Pages: 192
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Publication Date:
21 August 2014
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781843843795
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Literature: history and criticism
This collection successfully demonstrates the complexity of medieval sexual culture and would be useful for any with an interest in gender, sexuality, and Middle English romance.
Introduction: A Light Thrown upon Darkness: Writing about Medieval British Sexuality - Robert Rouse
Introduction: A Light Thrown upon Darkness: Writing about Medieval British Sexuality - Cory Rushton
Open Manslaughter and Bold Bawdry: Male Sexuality as a Cause of Disruption in Malory's Morte Darthur - Kristina Hildebrand
Erotic (Subject) Positions in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale - Amy S. Kaufman
Enter the Bedroom: Managing Space for the Erotic in Middle English Romance - Megan G. Leitch
'Naked as a nedyll': The Eroticism of Malory's Elaine - Yvette Kisor
'How love and I togedre met': Gower, Amans and the Lessons of Venus in the Confessio Amantis - Samantha J. Rayner
'Bogeysliche as a boye': Performing Sexuality in William of Palerne - Hannah Priest
Fairy Lovers: Sexuality, Order and Narrative in Medieval Romance - Aisling Byrne
Text as Stone: Desire, Sex and the Figurative Hermaphrodite in the Ordinal and Compound of Alchemy - Cynthea Masson
Animality, Sexuality and the Abject in Three of Dunbar's Satirical Poems - Anna Caughey
The Awful Passion of Pandarus - Cory Rushton
Invisible Woman: Rape as a Chivalric Necessity in Medieval Romance - Amy N. Vines
Introduction: A Light Thrown upon Darkness: Writing about Medieval British Sexuality - Cory Rushton
Open Manslaughter and Bold Bawdry: Male Sexuality as a Cause of Disruption in Malory's Morte Darthur - Kristina Hildebrand
Erotic (Subject) Positions in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale - Amy S. Kaufman
Enter the Bedroom: Managing Space for the Erotic in Middle English Romance - Megan G. Leitch
'Naked as a nedyll': The Eroticism of Malory's Elaine - Yvette Kisor
'How love and I togedre met': Gower, Amans and the Lessons of Venus in the Confessio Amantis - Samantha J. Rayner
'Bogeysliche as a boye': Performing Sexuality in William of Palerne - Hannah Priest
Fairy Lovers: Sexuality, Order and Narrative in Medieval Romance - Aisling Byrne
Text as Stone: Desire, Sex and the Figurative Hermaphrodite in the Ordinal and Compound of Alchemy - Cynthea Masson
Animality, Sexuality and the Abject in Three of Dunbar's Satirical Poems - Anna Caughey
The Awful Passion of Pandarus - Cory Rushton
Invisible Woman: Rape as a Chivalric Necessity in Medieval Romance - Amy N. Vines