Conflicted Identities and Multiple Masculinities: Men in the Medieval West

Description

"Conflicting Identities and Multiple Masculinities" takes as its focus the construction of masculinity in Western Europe from the early Middle Ages until the fifteenth century, crossing from pre-Christian Scandinavia across western Christendom. The essays consult a broad and representative cross section of sources including the work of theological, scholastic, and monastic writers, sagas, hagiography and memoirs, material culture, chronicles, "exampla" and vernacular literature, sumptuary legislation, and the records of ecclesiastical courts. The studies address questions of what constituted male identity, and male sexuality. How was masculinity constructed in different social groups? How did the secular and ecclesiastical ideals of masculinity reinforce each other or diverge? These essays address the topic of medieval men and, through a variety of theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary approaches, significantly extend our understanding of how, in the Middle Ages, masculinity and identity were conflicted and multifarious. Cover CONFLICTED IDENTITIES AND MULTIPLE MASCULINITIES MEN IN THE MEDIEVAL WEST Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction An Unresolved Syllogism: The Search for a Christian Gender System Secular and Spiritual Fatherhood in the Eleventh Century Jean Gerson and Traumas of Masculine Affectivity and Sexuality Mystical Castration: Some Reflections on Peter Abelard, Hugh of Lincoln and Sexual Control Medieval Masculinities and Modern Interpretations: The Problem of the Pardoner Triangularity in the Pagan North: The Case of Bjorn Arngeirsson and póròr Kolbeinsson Steel Corpse: Imaging the Knight in Death Chivalric Conversation and the Denial of Male Fear Separating the Men from the Goats: Masculinity, Civilization and Identity Formation in the Medieval University Gravitas and Consumption Men and Masculinity in Late Medieval London Civic Culture: Governance, Patriarchy and Reputation "Loved Him—Hated Her": Honor and Shame at the Medieval Court Contributors Index