The Erotic in the Literature of Medieval Britain

The Erotic in the Literature of Medieval Britain PDF Author: Amanda Hopkins
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843841193
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
An examination of the erotic in medieval literature which includes articles on the role of clothing and nudity, the tension between eroticism and transgression and religion and the erotic.

The Erotic in the Literature of Medieval Britain

The Erotic in the Literature of Medieval Britain PDF Author: Amanda Hopkins
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843841193
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
An examination of the erotic in medieval literature which includes articles on the role of clothing and nudity, the tension between eroticism and transgression and religion and the erotic.

Sexual Culture in the Literature of Medieval Britain

Sexual Culture in the Literature of Medieval Britain PDF Author: Amanda Hopkins
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 184384379X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
An examination into aspects of the sexual as depicted in a variety of medieval texts, from Chaucer and Malory to romance and alchemical treatises.

Obscene Pedagogies

Obscene Pedagogies PDF Author: Carissa M. Harris
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501730428
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
In Obscene Pedagogies, Carissa M. Harris investigates the relationship between obscenity, gender, and pedagogy in Middle English and Middle Scots literary texts from 1300 to 1580 to show how sexually explicit and defiantly vulgar speech taught readers and listeners about sexual behavior and consent. Through innovative close readings of literary texts including erotic lyrics, single-woman's songs, debate poems between men and women, Scottish insult poetry battles, and The Canterbury Tales, Harris demonstrates how through its transgressive charge and galvanizing shock value, obscenity taught audiences about gender, sex, pleasure, and power in ways both positive and harmful. Harris's own voice, proudly witty and sharply polemical, inspires the reader to address these medieval texts with an eye on contemporary issues of gender, violence, and misogyny.

Sodomy, Masculinity and Law in Medieval Literature

Sodomy, Masculinity and Law in Medieval Literature PDF Author: William E. Burgwinkle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139454765
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
William Burgwinkle surveys poetry and letters, histories and literary fiction - including Grail romances - to offer a historical survey of attitudes towards same-sex love during the centuries that gave us the Plantagenet court of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, courtly love, and Arthurian lore. Burgwinkle illustrates how 'sodomy' becomes a problematic feature of narratives of romance and knighthood. Most texts of the period denounce sodomy and use accusations of sodomitical practice as a way of maintaining a sacrificial climate in which masculine identity is set in opposition to the stigmatised other, for example the foreign, the feminine, and the heretical. What emerges from these readings, however, is that even the most homophobic, masculinist and normative texts of the period demonstrate an inability or unwillingness to separate the sodomitical from the orthodox. These blurred boundaries allow readers to glimpse alternative, even homoerotic, readings.

The Fires of Lust

The Fires of Lust PDF Author: Katherine Harvey
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1789144884
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
An illuminating exploration of the surprisingly familiar sex lives of ordinary medieval people. The medieval humoral system of medicine suggested that it was possible to die from having too much—or too little—sex, while the Roman Catholic Church taught that virginity was the ideal state. Holy men and women committed themselves to lifelong abstinence in the name of religion. Everyone was forced to conform to restrictive rules about who they could have sex with, in what way, how often, and even when, and could be harshly punished for getting it wrong. Other experiences are more familiar. Like us, medieval people faced challenges in finding a suitable partner or trying to get pregnant (or trying not to). They also struggled with many of the same social issues, such as whether prostitution should be legalized. Above all, they shared our fondness for dirty jokes and erotic images. By exploring their sex lives, the book brings ordinary medieval people to life and reveals details of their most personal thoughts and experiences. Ultimately, it provides us with an important and intimate connection to the past.

Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious Writing

Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious Writing PDF Author: L. Farina
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137049316
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious Writing discusses the role of sexuality in medieval devotional practice, looking in particular at religious writings circulating in England in the tenth to thirteenth centuries.

Medieval Virginities

Medieval Virginities PDF Author: Ruth Evans
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802086372
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
The variety of subjects and disciplines represented here testify both to the elusiveness of virginity and to its lasting appeal and importance. Medieval Virginities shows how virginity's inherent ambiguity highlights the problems, contradictions and discontinuities lurking within medieval ideologies.

The Spirit of Medieval English Popular Romance

The Spirit of Medieval English Popular Romance PDF Author: Ad Putter
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317885562
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
The Middle English popular romances enjoyed a wide appeal in later medieval Britain, and even today students of medieval literature will encounter examples of the genre, such as Sir Orfeo, Sir Tristrem, and Sir Launfal. This collection of twelve specially commissioned essays is designed to meet the need for a stimulating guide to the genre. Each essay introduces one popular romance, setting it in its literary and historical contexts, and develops an original interpretation that reveals the possibilities that popular romances offer for modern literary criticism. A substantial introduction by the editors discusses the production and transmission of popular romances in the Middle Ages, and considers the modern reception of popular romance and the interpretative challenges offered by new theoretical approaches. Accessible to advanced students of English, this book is also of interest to those working in the field of medieval studies, comparative literature, and popular culture.

Intersections of Sexuality and the Divine in Medieval Culture

Intersections of Sexuality and the Divine in Medieval Culture PDF Author: Susannah Chewning
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351926357
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
As distinct from the many recent collections and studies of medieval literature and culture that have focused on gender and sexuality as their major themes, this collection considers and serves to re-think and re-situate religion and sexuality together. Including 'traditional' works such as Chaucer and the Pearl-poet, as well as less well known and studied texts - such as alchemical texts and the Wohunge group - the contributors here focus on the meeting point of these two often-examined concepts. They seek an understanding of where sex and religion distinguish themselves from one another, and where they do not. This volume locates the Divine and the Erotic within the continuum of experience and devotion that characterize the paradox of the medieval world. Not merely original in their approaches, these authors seek a new vision of how these two inter-connected themes - sexuality and the Divine - meet, connect, distinguish themselves, and merge within medieval life, language, and literature.

The Book of Margery Kempe

The Book of Margery Kempe PDF Author: Margery Kempe
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0140432515
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
The story of the eventful and controversial life of Margery Kempe - wife, mother, businesswoman, pilgrim and visionary - is the earliest surviving autobiography in English. Here Kempe (c.1373-c.1440) recounts in vivid, unembarrassed detail the madness that followed the birth of the first of her fourteen children, the failure of her brewery business, her dramatic call to the spiritual life, her visions and uncontrollable tears, the struggle to convert her husband to a vow of chastity and her pilgrimages to Europe and the Holy Land. Margery Kempe could not read or write, and dictated her remarkable story late in life. It remains an extraordinary record of human faith and a portrait of a medieval woman of unforgettable character and courage.