Gender and Difference in the Middle Ages

2002
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Sharon Farmer and Carol Braun Pasternack, editors

Exposes complex intersections between genders and other identities in medieval cultures.

This volume demonstrates how the idea of gender-in the Middle Ages no less than now-intersected in subtle and complex ways with other categories of difference.

Contributors: Daniel Boyarin, Ruth Mazo Karras, Mathew Kuefler, Martha Newman, Kathryn M. Ringrose, Elizabeth Robertson, Everett Rowson, Michael Uebel, Ulrike Wiethaus.

Medieval Cultures Series, volume 32

The essays cover broad ground and consider a variety of differences that have only recently begun to enter mainstream medieval studies. I encourage medieval scholars and graduate students to peruse all the essays in the collection.

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Medieval Feminist Forum

Nothing less than a rethinking of what we mean when we talk about "men" and "women" of the medieval period, this volume demonstrates how the idea of gender-in the Middle Ages no less than now-intersected in subtle and complex ways with other categories of difference. Responding to the insights of postcolonial and feminist theory, the authors show that medieval identities emerged through shifting paradigms-that fluidity, conflict, and contingency characterized not only gender, but also sexuality, social status, and religion. This view emerges through essays that delve into a wide variety of cultures and draw on a broad range of disciplinary and theoretical approaches. Scholars in the fields of history as well as literary and religious studies consider gendered hierarchies in western Christian, Jewish, Byzantine, and Islamic areas of the medieval world.

Contributors: Daniel Boyarin, U of California, Berkeley; Ruth Mazo Karras, U of Minnesota; Mathew Kuefler, San Diego State U; Martha Newman, U of Texas; Kathryn M. Ringrose, U of California, San Diego; Elizabeth Robertson, U of Colorado; Everett Rowson, U of Pennsylvania; Michael Uebel, U of Kentucky; Ulrike Wiethaus, Wake Forest U.

Sharon Farmer is professor of history, and Carol Braun Pasternack is associate professor of English, both at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The essays cover broad ground and consider a variety of differences that have only recently begun to enter mainstream medieval studies. I encourage medieval scholars and graduate students to peruse all the essays in the collection.

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Medieval Feminist Forum