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Beschreibung
This volume offers a comprehensive introduction to and investigation of the multivocality of women's experience in the Middle Ages. In medieval Europe women saw their role in the Christian Church and society progressively confined to conflicting models of femininity epitomised by the dichotomy of Eve/Mary. Classical views of gender, predicated on misogynistic dichotomies which confined women to matter and the corruption of the flesh, were consolidated in powerful male-dominated clerical institutions and widely disseminated. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, however, women's corporeality and somatic spirituality contributed to and influenced burgeoning modes of piety centred around the cult of the Virgin Mary and the veneration of the suffering body of Christ on the Cross. This shift in devotional practices afforded women as bodily beings the space for an increased level of self-expression, self-realisation, and authority. Ranging from philosophical and theological enquiry to education and art, as well as medical sciences and popular beliefs, the essays in this collection account for the complexities and richness of the conceptualisations and lived experiences of medieval Christian women. The book will be especially relevant to students and scholars of religion and history with an interest in medieval studies and gender. Whilst expounding the key strands of thinking in the field, it engages with and contributes to some of the latest scholarly research.
This volume offers a comprehensive introduction to and investigation of the multivocality of women's experience in the Middle Ages. In medieval Europe women saw their role in the Christian Church and society progressively confined to conflicting models of femininity epitomised by the dichotomy of Eve/Mary. Classical views of gender, predicated on misogynistic dichotomies which confined women to matter and the corruption of the flesh, were consolidated in powerful male-dominated clerical institutions and widely disseminated. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, however, women's corporeality and somatic spirituality contributed to and influenced burgeoning modes of piety centred around the cult of the Virgin Mary and the veneration of the suffering body of Christ on the Cross. This shift in devotional practices afforded women as bodily beings the space for an increased level of self-expression, self-realisation, and authority. Ranging from philosophical and theological enquiry to education and art, as well as medical sciences and popular beliefs, the essays in this collection account for the complexities and richness of the conceptualisations and lived experiences of medieval Christian women. The book will be especially relevant to students and scholars of religion and history with an interest in medieval studies and gender. Whilst expounding the key strands of thinking in the field, it engages with and contributes to some of the latest scholarly research.
Über den Autor

Laura Kalas is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Swansea University, UK. She is the author of Margery Kempe's Spiritual Medicine: Suffering, Transformation and the Life- Course (2020) and coeditor of Encountering The Book of Margery Kempe (2021). Her research focuses on medieval religious culture and especially writings by, and about, women, on medicine, materiality, and devotion.

Roberta Magnani is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Swansea University, UK. Her research interests lie in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and late medieval manuscript culture with a specific focus on queer and trans theory. She has co-edited with Diane Watt a Special Issue of the journal postmedieval entitled 'Queer Manuscripts'.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Laura Kalas and Roberta Magnani

1 Theological Approaches to Women 1000-1550

Hazel Davis and Louise Nelstrop

2 Mary in the Middle Ages: A Woman for All Women

Sue Niebrzydowski

3 Saints' Lives: Bodies, Texts, and Readers in Medieval Lives of Female Saints

Shari Horner

4 Embodying Medieval Holy Women: Science, Technology, and Medicine

Laura Kalas

5 Women as Educators in Medieval Europe: Learners, Teachers, Mentors

Deborah Youngs

6 Philosophical Views of Women

Nicole Wyatt

7 Women and Popular Beliefs

Hannah Skoda

8 Representations: The Image and Experience of Women in Medieval Christian Art

Miriam Gill

Details
Erscheinungsjahr: 2026
Genre: Geschichte, Importe
Jahrhundert: Mittelalter
Rubrik: Geisteswissenschaften
Medium: Taschenbuch
ISBN-13: 9781032080819
ISBN-10: 1032080817
Sprache: Englisch
Einband: Kartoniert / Broschiert
Redaktion: Kalas, Laura
Magnani, Roberta
Auflage: 1. Auflage
Hersteller: Routledge
Verantwortliche Person für die EU: Libri GmbH, Europaallee 1, D-36244 Bad Hersfeld, gpsr@libri.de
Maße: 234 x 156 x 15 mm
Von/Mit: Laura Kalas (u. a.)
Erscheinungsdatum: 20.07.2026
Gewicht: 0,418 kg
Artikel-ID: 135880171