Gender, Poetry, and the Form of Thought in Later Medieval Literature

Jennifer Jahner; Ingrid Nelson

doi:10.5771/9781611463330

Summary

Over the course of her career, Elizabeth Robertson has pursued innovative scholarship that investigates the overlapping domains of medieval philosophy, literature, and gender studies. This collection of essays, dedicated to her work, examines gender as a construct of language, a mode of embodiment, and a critical framework for thinking about the past. Its eleven contributors approach the figure of the gendered body in medieval English writing along several axes: poetic, philosophical, material-textual, and historical. The volume focuses on the ways that the medieval body becomes a site of inquiry and agency, whether in the form of the idealized feminine body of secular and religious lyric, the sexually permissive and permeable body of fabliau, or the intercessory body of religious devotional writing. The essays span a broad range of medieval literary works, from the lais of Marie de France to Pearl to Piers Plowman and the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, and a broad range of methodological approaches, from philosophy to affect and manuscript studies. Taken together, they celebrate the scholarly career of Elizabeth Robertson while also presenting a coherent and multifaceted investigation of the intersections of gender and medieval literary practice.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-61146-332-3
ISBN-Online: 978-1-61146-333-0
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 232
Product type: Edited Book

1. Contents No access
2. Illustrations No access
3. Introduction: The Form of Thought No access
1. 1. Sleeping and Not Sleeping in the Later Middle Ages No access
  2. Waking Sleep in The Book of the Duchess No access
  3. Swooning and Dreaming in the Boke of Cupide No access
  4. Conclusion No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
2. 1. Feeling with Criseyde No access
  2. “Lady Bright” and “Cloudy Fortune” No access
  3. “I noot never what . . .” No access
  4. Conclusion No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
3. 1. Some Varieties of Voluntarism No access
  2. Intellectualism and Its Rivals No access
  3. The Will as Locus of the Self No access
  4. Higher and Lower Will No access
  5. Will’s Journey No access
  6. Notes No access
  7. Bibliography No access
4. 1. Notes No access
  2. Bibliography No access
1. 1. 1. The Nightingale Verse Proem No access
  2. (1) No access
  3. (2) No access
  4. (3) No access
  5. (4) No access
  6. (5) No access
  7. (6) No access
  8. Notes No access
  9. Bibliography No access
2. 1. Notes No access
  2. Bibliography No access
3. 1. Notes No access
  2. Bibliography No access
1. 1. Martyrdom and Spiritual Community in The Life of Saint Catherine No access
  2. Chastity, Land, and Power: The Life of Saint Audrey No access
  3. Marie de France’s Eliduc: The Marriage Debt Transformed No access
  4. Beyond Marriage: Women’s Autonomy and Community in Medieval Narrative No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
2. 1. Master Gregorius Finds a Goddess No access
  2. John Capgrave Finds Exemplary Women No access
  3. Margery Kempe Finds Herself No access
  4. Notes No access
  5. Bibliography No access
3. 1. I No access
  2. II No access
  3. III No access
  4. IV No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
Index No access Pages 223 - 228
Contributors No access Pages 229 - 232