Routledge Representing Medieval Genders and Sexualities in Europe: Construction, Transformation, and Subversion, 600–1530

Product Description Transcending both academic disciplines and traditional categories of analysis, this collection illustrates the ways genders and sexualities could be constructed, subverted and transformed. Focusing on areas such as literature, hagiography, history, and art history, from the Anglo-Saxon period to the early sixteenth century, the contributors examine the ways men and women lived, negotiated, and challenged prevailing conceptions of gender and sexual identity. In particular, their papers explore textual constructions and transformations of religious and secular masculinities and femininities; visual subversions of gender roles; gender and the exercise of power; and the role sexuality plays in the creation of gender identity. The methodologies which are used in this volume are relevant both to specialists of the Middle Ages and early modern periods, and to scholars working more broadly in fields that draw on contemporary gender studies. Review '... a wide-ranging collection that shows the maturity of the field of medieval gender studies.' Sarah Salih, King's College London, UK '... this volume is an important addition to the large and growing literature on sex and gender in the middle ages.' Comitatus 'The book’s index and well-populated bibliography will make it of use to undergraduate students starting to discover the range of approaches available for the study of gender in the medieval period... One last point bears mentioning and that is the beautifully presented dust jacket. The colour reproduction of the painting Scenes from the Life of Saint Irene on the dark green background makes the volume as handsome as it is edifying.' Parergon About the Author Elizabeth L'Estrange is lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Birmingham, UK. Alison More is a researcher in the Department of History at Radboud University in the Netherlands