A History of Women in the West

by Pantel, Pauline Schmitt; Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane; Perrot, Michelle; Duby, Georges

• ISBN13: 9780674403710
• ISBN10: 0674403711
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-12-01
• Publisher: Belknap Pr

Summary

Drawing on myriad sources--from the faint traces left by the rocking of a cradle at the site of an early medieval home to an antique illustration of Eve's fall from grace-this second volume in the celebrated series offers new perspectives on women of the past. Twelve distinguished historians from many countries examine the image of women in the masculine mind, their social condition, and their daily experience from the demise of the Roman Empire to the genesis of the Italian Renaissance. More than in any other era, a medieval woman's place in society was determined by men; her sexuality was perceived as disruptive and dangerous, her proper realm that of the home and cloister. The authors draw upon the writings of bishops and abbots, moralists and merchants, philosophers and legislators, to illuminate how men controlled women's lives. Sumptuary laws regulating feminine dress and ornament, pastoral letters admonishing women to keep silent and remain chaste, and learned treatises with their fantastic theories about women's physiology are fully explored in these pages. As adoration of the Virgin Mary reached full flower by the year 1200, ecclesiastics began to envision motherhood as a holy role; misogyny, however, flourished unrestrained in local proverbs, secular verses, and clerical thought throughout the period. Were women's fates sealed by the dictates of church and society? The authors investigate legal, economic, and demographic aspects of family and communal life between the sixth and the fifteenth centuries and bring to light the fleeting moments in which women managed to seize some small measure of autonomy over their lives. The notion that courtly love empowered feudal women is discredited in this volume. The pattern of wear on a hearthstone, fingerprints on a terra-cotta pot, and artifacts from everyday life such as scissors, thimbles, spindles, and combs are used to reconstruct in superb detail the commonplace tasks that shaped women's existence inside and outside the home. As in antiquity, male fantasies and fears are evident in art. Yet a growing number of women rendered visions of their own gender in sumptuous tapestries and illuminations. The authors look at the surviving texts of female poets and mystics and document the stirrings of a quiet revolution throughout the West, as a few daring women began to preserve their thoughts in writing.

Table of Contents

Writing the History of Women	ix
Georges Duby
Michelle Perrot
Orders and Liberties	1	(8)
Genevieve Fraisse
Michelle Perrot
Arthur Goldhammer
ONE. THE POLITICAL RUPTURE AND THE NEW ORDER OF DISCOURSE	9	(106)
Daughters of Liberty and Revolutionary Citizens	15	(18)
Dominique Godineau
Arthur Goldhammer
The French Revolution as the Turning Point	33	(15)
Elisabeth G. Sledziewski
Arthur Goldhammer
A Philosophical History of Sexual Difference	48	(32)
Genevieve Fraisse
Arthur Goldhammer
The Law's Contradictions	80	(35)
Nicole Arnaud-Duc
Arthur Goldhammer
TWO. THE PRODUCTION OF WOMEN, REAL AND IMAGINARY	115	(204)
Artistic and Literary Idolatries	121	(24)
Stephane Michaud
Arthur Goldhammer
Reading and Writing in Germany	145	(21)
Marie-Claire Hoock-Demarle
Arthur Goldhammer
The Catholic Model	166	(32)
Michela De Giorgio
Joan Bond Sax
The Protestant Woman	198	(15)
Jean Bauberot
Arthur Goldhammer
The Making of the Modern Jewish Woman	213	(15)
Nancy L. Green
The Secular Model of Girls' Education	228	(18)
Francoise Mayeur
Arthur Goldhammer
Images--Appearances, Leisure, and Subsistence	246	(60)
Anne Higonnet
Representations of Women	306	(13)
Anne Higonnet
THREE. THE CIVIL WOMAN, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE	319	(124)
Bodies and Hearts	325	(44)
Yvonne Knibiehler
Arthur Goldhammer
Dangerous Sexualities	369	(30)
Judith R. Walkowitz
The Woman Worker	399	(28)
Joan W. Scott
Single Women	427	(16)
Cecile Dauphin
Arthur Goldhammer
FOUR. MODERNITIES	443	(90)
Stepping Out	449	(33)
Michelle Perrot
Arthur Goldhammer
Feminist Scenes	482	(33)
Anne-Marie Kappeli
Arthur Goldhammer
The New Eve and the Old Adam	515	(18)
Annelise Maugue
Arthur Goldhammer
FIVE. WOMEN'S VOICES	533	(16)
Germaine de Stael	537	(5)
Genevieve Fraisse
Michelle Perrot
Lou Andreas-Salome	542	(7)
Genevieve Fraisse
Michelle Perrot
Arthur Goldhammer
Notes	549	(38)
Bibliography	587	(28)
Contributors	615	(4)
Illustration Credits	619	(2)
Index	621
Figures I-47	262