A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages

A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages
Author: Kim M. Phillips
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2015-04-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350995428

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.

Women's Lives in Medieval Europe

Women's Lives in Medieval Europe
Author: Emilie Amt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134720602

Praise for the first edition: 'It is difficult to imagine another book in which one could find all this diverse material, and no doubt Amt's collection, in its richness, and in its genuine clarity and simplicity will takes prominent place in our expanded, diversified medieval curriculum, a curriculum that takes class, gender, and ethnicity as central to an understanding of world cultural history.' - The Medieval Review Long considered to be a definitive and truly groundbreaking collection of sources, Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe uniquely presents the everyday lives and experiences of women in the Middle Ages. This indispensible text has now been thoroughly updated and expanded to reflect new research, and includes previously unavailable source material. This new edition includes expanded sections on marriage and sexuality, and on peasant women and townswomen, as well as a new section on women and the law. There are brief introductions both to the period and to the individual documents, study questions to accompany each reading, a glossary of terms and a fully updated bibliography. Working within a multi-cultural framework, the book focuses not just on the Christian majority, but also present material about women in minority groups in Europe, such as Jews, Muslims, and those considered to be heretics. Incorporating both the laws, regulations and religious texts that shaped the way women lived their lives, and personal narratives by and about medieval women, the book is unique in examining women’s lives through the lens of daily activities, and in doing so as far as possible through the voices of women themselves.

Women in Christianity in the Modern Age

Women in Christianity in the Modern Age
Author: Lisa Isherwood
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2021-12
Genre: Women in Christianity
ISBN: 9781032190082

"Women in Christianity in the Modern Age examines the role of women in Christianity in the 20th and early 21st Centuries. This edited volume includes eight important contributions from academics in the field. The modern era has been an age of social and religious upheaval, and the ravages of global warfare and changes to women's role in society have made the examination of the place of women in religion a key question in theology. From theological concerns - engagements with the biblical texts by feminist and anti-feminist theologians, the modern role of Mary and women saints - to political and social debates on women's ministry and place in society, and cultural shifts as expressed through theologically inspired artwork by women, Women in Christianity in the Modern Age provides an overview and in-depth studies of a tumultuous and changing era. This insightful text will be of key interest to students and scholars in Religion and Cultural Studies"--

Women of the Middle Ages

Women of the Middle Ages
Author: Ruth Dean
Publisher:
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2002-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781590181713

Explores the many and diversified roles of women during the Middle Ages.

A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages

A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages
Author: Kim M. Phillips
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Civilization, Medieval
ISBN: 9781847884756

These volumes present an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. With six volumes covering 2500 years, this is the most authoritative history available of women in Western cultures. Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters: the Life Cycle; Bodies and Sexuality; Religion and Popular Beliefs; Medicine and Disease; Public and Private Worlds; Education and Work; Power; and Artistic Representation. This means readers can either have a broad overview of a period by reading a volume or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.

The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women

The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women
Author: June Hall McCash
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 428
Release: 1996
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780820317021

The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women is the first volume exclusively devoted to an examination of the significant role played by women as patrons in the evolution of medieval culture. The twelve essays in this volume look at women not simply as patrons of letters but also as patrons of the visual and decorative arts, of architecture, and of religious and educational foundations. Patronage as a means of empowerment for women is an issue that underlies many of the essays. Among the other topics discussed are the various forms patronage took, the obstacles to women's patronage, and the purposes behind patronage. Some women sought to further political and dynastic agendas; others were more concerned with religion and education; still others sought to provide positive role models for women. The amusement of their courts was also a consideration for female patrons. These essays also demonstrate that as patrons women were often innovators. They encouraged vernacular literature as well as the translation of historical works and of the Bible, frequently with commentary, into the vernacular. They led the way in sponsoring a variety of genres and encouraged some of the best-known and most influential writers of the Middle Ages. Moreover, they were at the forefront in fostering the new art of printing, which made books accessible to a larger number of people. Finally, the essays make clear that behind much patronage lay a concern for the betterment of women.

Common Women

Common Women
Author: Ruth Mazo Karras
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1996
Genre: England
ISBN: 0195062426

"Common women" in medieval England were prostitutes, whose distinguishing feature was not that they took money for sex but that they belonged to all men in common. Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England tells the stories of these women's lives: their entrance into the trade because of poor job and marriage prospects or because of seduction or rape; their experiences as street-walkers, brothel workers or the medieval equivalent of call girls; their customers, from poor apprentices to priests to wealthy foreign merchants; and their relations with those among whom they lived. Through a sensitive use of a wide variety of imaginative and didactic texts, Ruth Karras shows that while prostitutes as individuals were marginalized within medieval culture, prostitution as an institution was central to the medieval understanding of what it meant to be a woman. This important work will be of interest to scholars and students of history, women's studies, and the history of sexuality.

Women in Medieval Europe

Women in Medieval Europe
Author: Jennifer Ward
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2014-06-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317888596

Women in Medieval Europe were expected to be submissive, but such a broad picture ignores great areas of female experience. Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, women are found in the workplace as well as the home, and some women were numbered among the key rulers, saints and mystics of the medieval world. Opportunities and activities changed over time, and by 1500 the world of work was becoming increasingly restricted for women. Women of all social groups were primarily engaged with their families, looking after husband and children, and running the household. Patterns of work varied geographically. In the northern towns, women engaged in a wide range of crafts, with a small number becoming entrepreneurs. Many of the poor made a living as servants and labourers. Prostitution flourished in many medieval towns. Some women turned to the religious life, and here opportunities burgeoned in the thirteenth century. The Middle Ages are not remote from the twenty-first century; the lives of medieval women evoke a response today. The medieval mother faced similar problems to her modern counterpart. The sheer variety of women’s experience in the later Middle Ages is fully brought out in this book.

Medieval Woman's Song

Medieval Woman's Song
Author: Anne L. Klinck
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812236246

The number of surviving medieval secular poems attributed to named female authors is small, some of the best known being those of the trobairitz the female troubadours of southern France. However, there is a large body of poetry that constructs a particular textual femininity through the use of the female voice. Some of these poems are by men and a few by women (including the trobairitz); many are anonymous, and often the gender of the poet is unresolvable. A "woman's song" in this sense can be defined as a female-voice poem on the subject of love, typically characterized by simple language, sexual candor, and apparent artlessness. The chapters in Medieval Woman's Song bring together scholars in a range of disciplines to examine how both men and women contributed to this art form. Without eschewing consideration of authorship, the collection deliberately overturns the long-standing scholarly practice of treating as separate and distinct entities female-voice lyrics composed by men and those composed by women. What is at stake here is less the voice of women themselves than its cultural and generic construction.