Sexuality, Sociality, and Cosmology in Medieval Literary Texts

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.

"In Sexuality, Sociality, and Cosmology in Medieval Literary Texts, Brown and Segol bring together an impressive body of scholarship on Latin, Hebrew, Spanish, and English/Scots materials in which sexuality, both chivalric and mystical, is represented and explored. The volume is impressive both for its range where else will you find the 'Zohar' juxtaposed to Alain de Lille and the Libro de Buen Amor? and for its recognition that sexuality in medieval texts is as likely to resonate with ideas about the structure of the cosmos as it is to elucidate the ways in which medieval social relations are cemented and undermined. Required reading for anyone interested in understanding more about the (in)coherences of medieval notions and representations of sexuality." Steven F. Kruger, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Autorentext
Jennifer N. Brown Marla Segol Helene Scheck Valerie Allen Nicholas Ealy Ilan Mitchell-Smith Michelle Sauer Holly Crocker

Inhalt
Introduction: Narrating Sexuality, Sociality and Cosmology in Medieval Text; Jennifer N. Brown and Marla Segol 2. Whore as Imago Dei in Hrotzvit's Life of Thais; Helene Scheck 3. Alan of Lille on the Little Bits that Make a Difference; Valerie Allen 4. Queer Zohar: Instructions for Reading; Marla Segol 5. Illusions of Love: Phantasmatic Desire and the Woman-Who-Never-Was in the Libro de buen amor; 6. The Double Binds of Chivalric Sexuality in the Late-Medieval English Romance; Ilan Mitchell-Smith 7. Climactic Spirituality: Mystic Self-Blazoning and Female Agency; Michelle Sauer 8. Cosmology, Sexuality and Music in Robert Henryson's Orpheus and Eurydice; Jennifer N. Brown 9. 'Cresseid's Dignity: Cosmology and Sexuality in Henryson's Testament'; Holly Crocker