A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages

by Phillips, Kim

• ISBN13: 9780857850980
• ISBN10: 0857850989
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-05-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

The medieval era has been described as 'the 'Age of Chivalry' and 'the Age of Faith' but also as 'the Dark Ages'. Medieval women have often been viewed as subject to a punishing misogyny which limited their legal rights and economic activities, but some scholars have claimed they enjoyed a 'rough and ready equality' with men. The contrasting figures of Eve and the Virgin Mary loom over historians' interpretations of the period 1000-1500. Yet a wealth of recent historiography goes behind these conventional motifs, showing how medieval women's lives were shaped by status, age, life-stage, geography and religion as well as by gender.

A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages presents essays on medieval women's life cycle, bodies and sexuality, religion and popular beliefs, medicine and disease, public and private realms, education and work, power, and artistic representation to illustrate the diversity of medieval women's lives and constructions of femininity.

Author Biography

Kim M. Phillips is Senior Lecturer in History, University of Auckland, New Zealand, and author of Medieval Maidens: Young Women and Gender in England, 1275-1540 and co-author of Sex Before Sexuality: A Premodern History.

Table of Contents

A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages, Edited by Kim M. Phillips
Introduction
The Life Cycle: The Ages of Medieval Women, Cordelia Beattie, University of Edinburgh, UK

Bodies and Sexuality, April Harper, SUNY Oneonta, USA

Religion and Popular Beliefs: Choices, Constraints, and Creativity for Christian Women, Katherine L. French, SUNY New Paltz, USA

Medicine and Disease: The Female 'Patient' in Medieval Europe, Iona McCleery, University of Leeds, UK

Public and Private: Women in the Home, Women in the Streets, Kim M. Phillips, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Education and Work: Multiple Tasks and Lowly Status, Sandy Bardsley, Moravian College, USA

Power: Medieval Women's Power through Authority, Autonomy, and Influence, Lois Huneycutt, University of Missouri, USA

Artistic Representation: Women and/in Medieval Visual Culture, Marian Bleeke, Jennifer Borland, Rachel Dressler, Martha Easton and Elizabeth L'Estrange, The Medieval Feminist Art History Project, USA