Medieval Masculinities
Regarding Men in the Middle Ages
Published on 14. July 1994
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-8166-2426-3 (ISBN)
Description
"Ranging from questions of epic violence and heroic embodiments of manhood to constructions of bachelorhood, husbandry, and sainthood, Medieval Masculinities is the first synthesis of medieval and gender studies to focus on masculinities."
Harry Brod, editor of The Making of Masculinities
"We should not be working [exclusively] on the subjected sex any more than a historian of class can focus exclusively on peasants."-Natalie Zemon Davis, 1975
In the years since Natalie Davis made this remark, men's studies, and gender studies along with it, has earned its place in scholarship. What is often missing from such studies, however, is the insight that the concept of gender in general, and that of masculinity in particular, can be understood only in relation to individual societies, examined at specific historical and cultural moments.
A brilliant application of this insight, Medieval Masculinities is the first full-length collection to explore the issues of men's studies and contemporary theories of gender within the context of the Middle Ages.
Interdisciplinary and multicultural, the essays range from matrimony in medieval Italy to bachelorhood in Renaissance Venice, from friars and saints to the male animal in the fables of Marie de France, from manhood in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Beowulf, and the Roman d'Eneas to men as "other," whether Muslim or Jew, in medieval Castilian epic and ballad. The authors are especially concerned with cultural manifestations of masculinity that transcend this particular historical period-idealized gender roles, political and economic factors in structuring social institutions, and the impact of masculinist ideology in fostering and maintaining power. Together, their essays constitute an important reassessment of traditional assumptions within medieval studies as well as a major contribution to the evolving study of gender.
Contributors
Christopher Baswell, Barnard College
Vern L. Bullough, SUNY, Buffalo
Stanley Chojnacki, Michigan State University
John Coakley, New Brunswick Theological Seminary
Thelma Fenster, Fordham University
Clare Kinney, University of Virginia
Clare A. Lees, University of Pennsylvania
Jo Ann McNamara, Hunter College
Louise Mirrer, Fordham University
Harriet Spiegel, California State University, Chico
Susan Mosher Stuard, Haverford College
Harry Brod, editor of The Making of Masculinities
"We should not be working [exclusively] on the subjected sex any more than a historian of class can focus exclusively on peasants."-Natalie Zemon Davis, 1975
In the years since Natalie Davis made this remark, men's studies, and gender studies along with it, has earned its place in scholarship. What is often missing from such studies, however, is the insight that the concept of gender in general, and that of masculinity in particular, can be understood only in relation to individual societies, examined at specific historical and cultural moments.
A brilliant application of this insight, Medieval Masculinities is the first full-length collection to explore the issues of men's studies and contemporary theories of gender within the context of the Middle Ages.
Interdisciplinary and multicultural, the essays range from matrimony in medieval Italy to bachelorhood in Renaissance Venice, from friars and saints to the male animal in the fables of Marie de France, from manhood in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Beowulf, and the Roman d'Eneas to men as "other," whether Muslim or Jew, in medieval Castilian epic and ballad. The authors are especially concerned with cultural manifestations of masculinity that transcend this particular historical period-idealized gender roles, political and economic factors in structuring social institutions, and the impact of masculinist ideology in fostering and maintaining power. Together, their essays constitute an important reassessment of traditional assumptions within medieval studies as well as a major contribution to the evolving study of gender.
Contributors
Christopher Baswell, Barnard College
Vern L. Bullough, SUNY, Buffalo
Stanley Chojnacki, Michigan State University
John Coakley, New Brunswick Theological Seminary
Thelma Fenster, Fordham University
Clare Kinney, University of Virginia
Clare A. Lees, University of Pennsylvania
Jo Ann McNamara, Hunter College
Louise Mirrer, Fordham University
Harriet Spiegel, California State University, Chico
Susan Mosher Stuard, Haverford College
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Minnesota
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8166-2426-3 (9780816624263)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Clare A. Lees is assistant professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania.
Content
Part 1 Constructing masculinities: the herrenfrage: the restructuring of the gender system, 1050-1150, Jo Ann McNamara; On being a male in the Middle Ages, Vern L. Bullough; The [dis]embodied hero and the signs of manhood in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Clare R. Kinney. Part 2 Men in institutions: Burdens of matrimony - husbanding and gender in medieval Italy, Susan Mosher Stuard; Subaltern patriarchs - patrician bachelors in Renaissance Venice, Stanley Chojnacki; Friars, sanctity, and gender - mendicant encounters with saints, 1250-1325. John Coakley; The male animal in the fables of Marie de France, Harriet Spiegel. Part 3 Epic and empire: Men and Beowulf, Clare A. Lees; Men in the Roman d'Eneas - the construction of empire, Christopher Baswell; Representing "other" men Muslims, Jews, and masculine ideals in medieval Castilian epic and ballad, Louise Mirrer.