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Full Description
From Joan of Arc to Britney Spears, the figure of the virgin has been the subject of considerable scholarly and popular interest. Yet virginity itself is a paradoxical condition, both perfect and monstrous, present and absent, often visible only insofar as it is under threat.
Medieval Virginities traces some of the specific manifestations of virginity in late medieval culture. It shows how virginity is represented in medical, legal, hagiographical and historical texts, as well as how the seductive but dangerous figure of the virgin affects the aims and objectives of these texts. Because virginity is so often thought of as self-identical and ahistorical, Medieval Virginities aims to theorize and historicize its various manifestations and to demonstrate how representations and discussions of virginity continuously shift and change.
The variety of subjects and disciplines represented here testify both to the elusiveness of virginity and to its lasting appeal and importance. Medieval Virginities shows how virginity's inherent ambiguity highlights the problems, contradictions and discontinuities lurking within medieval ideologies. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in questions of gender identity, conceptions of the body, subjectivity, truth and representation in medieval culture.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Series Editors' Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Abbreviations
Introduction: Virginities and Virginity Studies - Sarah Salih, Anke Bernalj and Ruth Evans
When is a Bosom Not a Bosom?: Problems with 'Erotic Mysticism' - Sarah Salih
The Sheela-na-Gig: An Incongruous Sign of Sexual Purity? - Juliette Dor
Virginity and Chastity Tests in Medieval Welsh Prose - Jane Cartwright
Four Virgins' Tales: Sex and Power in Medieval Law - Kim M. Phillips
The Labour of Continence: Masculinity and Clerical Virginity - John H. Arnold
Edward the Celibate, Edward the Saint: Virginity in the Construction of Edward the Confessor - Joanna Huntington
Alchemy and the Exploration of Late Medieval Sexuality - Jonathan Hughes
The Jew, the Host and the Virgin Martyr: Fantasies of the Sentient Body - Ruth Evans
Can the Virgin Martyr Speak? - Robert Mills
'Saint, Witch, Man, Maid or Whore?': Joan of Arc and Writing History - Anke Bernau
Virginity Now and Then: A Response to Medieval Virginities - Jocelyn Wogan-Browne
Bibliography
Index
