Sexuality, Sociality, and Cosmology in Medieval Literary Texts

by Segol, Marla; Brown, Jennifer N.

• ISBN13: 9780230109803
• ISBN10: 0230109802
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-01-08
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

For many medieval authors, sexuality was the ultimate expression of embodiment. Sexuality could be a medium for human communication with the divine, but that it could also be a barrier when not conceptualized or practiced correctly. This collection shows several operating models of body and cosmos and demonstrates how these models work together to replicate, probe, and disrupt conceptions of their relationships. Exploring the relation between sexuality and cosmology in a variety of literary texts from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, the essays reveal that medieval authors, whether lay or religious, Christian or Jewish, were grappling with the same sets of questions about sexuality as people are today.

Author Biography

Jennifer N. Brown is Associate Professor at Marymount Manhattan College. She is the author of Three Women of Liège: A Critical Edition of and Commentary on the Middle English Lives of Elizabeth of Spalbeek, Christina Mirabilis, and Marie d'Oignies and the co-editor of the forthcoming Barking Abbey and Medieval Literary Culture: Authorship and Authority in a Female Community.

Marla Segol holds the Institute for Jewish Thought and Heritage Professorship at the University of Buffalo. She is the author of Word and Image in Medieval Kabbalah.

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