Reading Skin in Medieval Literature and Culture

Reviews / Votes

"Reading Skin in Medieval Literature and Culture is a theoretically-informed and thought-provoking collection, and, while its close readings focus primarily on Middle English literature, it has a much broader applicability. . On the whole, this is a fascinating collection of essays that is sure to provoke further consideration of the importance of skin - its meaning and materiality - in the Middle Ages and beyond." (Jessica Barr, Mediaevistik, Vol. 28, 2015)

'Taking as its subject matter what Katie Walter aptly calls 'the dense tissue of associations of skin in medieval culture,' the essays in this excellent volume explore the porousness of body to world, human vulnerability, the jarring effects of touching and being touched, our intimacy with animals and monsters, race and corporeal form, medical and religious discourses of the dermal,and the enfolding of identity and temporality via the corporeal membrane. Well written and cogently argued, Reading Skin in Medieval Literature and Culture offers eight essays and a response piece through which the cultural meanings and blunt material challenges of skin undermine the duality of surface and depth.' - Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Professor of English and Director, GW Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute, George Washington University, USA