As a geographic trope transposed to literary discourse, discovery remains closely linked to the desire for possession. Postcolonial criticism has sought to deconstruct the feminized and sexualized discourses of geographic places and spaces as objects of desire, invasion, and annexation.
The negotiation of gender and power in medieval German writings
July 8, 2012 By
The Christian religion plays a most important role in the internalization and re-enforcement of patriarchy in the Western world. As will be seen later in this thesis, the relationship between a patriarchal God and his “children” is reflected in the relationship between the male head of the family and his wife, children and servants.
Bogomils, Cathars, Lollards, and the High Social Position of Women During the Middle Ages
June 24, 2012 By
During the 12th century, if not slightly earlier, Western Europe lived through a period of economic and social upheavel termed by many historians the 12th c. Renaissance. One of its aspects is related to the considerable emancipation of women mostly in Southern France, a development which spread over to Italy, Flanders, and later, England. One can even detect social zones where real emancipation was axhieved.
Constructions of Gender in Medieval Welsh Literature
June 17, 2012 By
The discussion of gender in medieval literary criticism is generally considered
to be a relatively new field, having achieved real momentum only in the latter half of the twentieth century. However, since it was the early fifteenth century when Christine de Pisan wrote a response to Jean de Meun’s Romance of the Rose, it cannot really be imagined that the medieval audience was too primitive to be fully aware of the subtext inside their stories.
Love, Mercy, and Courtly Discourse: Marguerite de Navarre Reads Alain Chartier
June 17, 2012 By
Love, Mercy, and Courtly Discourse: Marguerite de Navarre Reads Alain Chartier Frelick, Nancy (University of British Columbia) Mythes à la cour, mythes pour la four (2010). 325-36 Abstract In the Heptaméron, Marguerite de Navarre makes two direct references to Alain Chartier’s Belle Dame sans Mercy. Both references highlight the elaboration of lovesickness and courtly discourse as strategies of […]
The daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine: a comparative study of twelfth-century royal women
June 17, 2012 By
This thesis is the first study of the daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine which considers them in a dynastic context.
The Publisher Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, Female Readers, and the Debate about Women in Sixteenth-Century Italy
June 14, 2012 By
Drawing on recent work on the social history of the book and the politics of reading, this essay considers the texts under question as social products, whose meaning is not just determined by the author’s initial intentions, but is further shaped in the process of production, dissemination, and reception as a result of negotiation among several parties in a given historical moment.
Husbands, Wives, and Adultery in Late-Medieval Northern France
June 10, 2012 By
If painting a slightly less stark picture of gender inequality than the above account of total repression for women and total freedom for men, modern scholars generally assume that medieval European courts did not enforce the Christian prohibition against husbands’ adultery.
The Meanings of Nudity in Medieval Art: An Introduction
June 10, 2012 By
This simplification is frankly astonishing when one considers the complex, multivalent and inventive iconographic contexts in which full or partial nakedness appears in medieval art.
Figures of Female Militancy in Medieval France
May 25, 2012 By
These days when chivalry is everywhere on the decline, and no one dares to tourney anymore, and all knights are cowards, women are all the more courageous in battle.’
Why All the Fuss about the Body? A Medievalist’s Perspective
May 4, 2012 By
erhaps some help is to be found in the usual scholarly move of sur- veying the literature. What does the phrase mean in the rapidly increas- ing number of books with the body in the title-an increase only too apparent to anyone who walks these days into a bookstore?
‘He contents the people wherever he goes’ Richard III: His Parliament and Government
April 29, 2012 By
In recent years new biographies of great figures such as Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy have shed great light on key issues of English-European relations, while studies of Margaret Beaufort have redefined the political role of the women of this era.
Flowers for the Book-binder’s Wife: An Investigation of Florilegia and Early Modern Women’s Writing
April 22, 2012 By
To an early modern, nothing could be fully learned through a “hands off” approach. Heidi Brayman Hackel corroborates this with her book, Reading Material. Critical to early modern thoughts on comprehension was “taking note,” a phrasing that carried the double implication of both noticing and annotating…
The female body, animal imagery, and authoritarian discourse in the Ancrene Riwle
April 17, 2012 By
Through close reading and rhetorical analysis of numerous passages in the guide, this dissertation re-examines the importance of the body and authority in this work and notes the points at which the discourse of the Ancrene Riwle tends to place restrictions on its audience of medieval women religious.
VAGANTES: “I See Red: Language of Blood and Feminity in Táin Bó Cúailnge
April 6, 2012 By
This paper examined the role of Medb and Fedelm, the seer in the Táin. It focuses on this conversation between the seer and Medb.
Englishwomen as Pilgrims to Jerusalem: Isolda Parewastell, 1365
March 22, 2012 By
Isolda Parewastell from Somerset, who was in Jerusalem in 1365, fitted into this fourteenth-century pattern. Despite the risks involved, women pilgrims were inspired by an instinct for travel and change, as well as by a sense of religious obligation and the hope of spiritual reward.
The Vulgate Genesis and St. Jerome’s Attitudes to Women
March 22, 2012 By
It is Jerome’s hostility to women (and his suspicion and fear of them) that is usually emphasized. Some of my examples show evidence of this bias. But some of my examples also show a great warmth and sensitivity on his part to the women concerned in the passages, and I am inclined to attribute to St. Jerome a much more sympathetic and affectionate nature than does David Wiesen…
“The World on the End of a Reed”: Marguerite Porete and the annihilation of an identity in medieval and modern representations – a reassessment
February 20, 2012 By
Central to the aims of this thesis is the question “how did Porete „fit‟ the religious landscape of her period?” A seeming obstacle to this pursuit are claims from within the scholarship that Porete did not „fit‟ at all, but was, rather, as an aberration amidst other female mystics of the period.
The debate on the Epistolae duorum amantium. Current status
February 14, 2012 By
The methodological questions at stake are much more important and interesting. To quote the initial words of P. von Moos’ monumental article, these documents represent a real challenge for medievalism.
Female Discourses: Powerful and Powerless Speech in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur
January 12, 2012 By
Verbal interactions of female characters of Le Morte Darthur are analyzed in various instances of speech behavior, such as advice, apology, conflict managing, complaining, nagging and teasing.
Christine de Pizan’s Enseignemens moraux: Good Advice for Several Generations
October 23, 2011 By
Christine de Pizan’s Enseignemens moraux: Good Advice for Several Generations Reno, Christine (VASSAR COLLEGE) Christine de Pisan: The Making of the Queen’s Manuscript (2005) Abstract Christine de Pizan’s Enseignemens moraux, or Moral teachings, is a collection, in the modern edition by Maurice Roy, of one hundred thirteen nuggets of moral and practical advice addressed to the […]
The Remarkable Role of Women in 16th Century French Basque Law Codes
October 23, 2011 By
The Remarkable Role of Women in 16th Century French Basque Law Codes Frank, Roslyn M. and Lowenberg, Shelley (University of Iowa) Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, Vol. IV, Santa Barbara, California, (1977) Abstract In the first paper of this three-part presentation entitled “Research on the Role of Women in French Basque Culture,” we shall […]
Women Characters in Arthurian Literature
October 16, 2011 By
The main issue, then, is how Arthurian women characters have been portrayed throughout the centuries and the reasons for those particular ways of portrayal.
Herbal healers and devil dealers: a study of healers and their gendered persecution in the medieval period
September 10, 2011 By
Herbal healers and devil dealers: a study of healers and their gendered persecution in the medieval period McPhee, Meghan Thesis: M.A., (History), California State University, Sacramento (2009) Abstract Long before written record, men and women have known the healing properties of herbs and medicinal arts have been practiced even before the first civilizations emerged. This ancient […]
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