Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic LoveUniversity of Chicago Press, Feb 15, 2009 - 308 pages Until now the advent of Western romantic love has been seen as a liberation from—or antidote to—ten centuries of misogyny. In this major contribution to gender studies, R. Howard Bloch demonstrates how similar the ubiquitous antifeminism of medieval times and the romantic idealization of woman actually are. Through analyses of a broad range of patristic and medieval texts, Bloch explores the Christian construction of gender in which the flesh is feminized, the feminine is aestheticized, and aesthetics are condemned in theological terms. Tracing the underlying theme of virginity from the Church Fathers to the courtly poets, Bloch establishes the continuity between early Christian antifeminism and the idealization of woman that emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In conclusion he explains the likely social, economic, and legal causes for the seeming inversion of the terms of misogyny into those of an idealizing tradition of love that exists alongside its earlier avatar until the current era. This startling study will be of great value to students of medieval literature as well as to historians of culture and gender. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 13 | |
TWO Early Christianity and the Estheticization of Gender | 37 |
THREE Devils Gateway and Bride of Christ | 65 |
FOUR The Poetics of Virginity | 93 |
FIVE The Old French Lay and the Myriad Modes of Male Indiscretion | 113 |
SIX The Love Lyric and the Paradox of Perfection | 143 |
The Power of Women to Dispose | 165 |
Notes | 199 |
Bibliography | 271 |
Index | 291 |
Other editions - View all
Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love R. Howard Bloch No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
according Adam amor Andreas Capellanus antifeminism antifeminist Art of Courtly ascetic asceticism Augustine beautiful Bernart bien Body and Society BRIDE OF CHRIST century chapter Chastelaine de Vergi chastity Chaucer church fathers cited courtly love culture Dame daughter death desire Devil's gateway discourse of misogyny dowry droit Duby early Christian example fabliau female feminine feminism femme flesh Fontevrault Guigemar husband Ibid ideal Ignauré implies Jaufré Rudel Jean Jerome John Chrysostom knight lady language Lanval Laüstic literary literature logic lover lyric Marie de France marriage medieval Middle Ages misogynistic misogyny mother nature paradox Paris patristic Physician's Tale poet poetic Poitou POWER OF WOMEN Press question relation rhetoric Robert d'Arbrissel Roman romantic love Rougemont seen sense sexual social song speak synonymous Tertullian tion topos tradition trans troubadour University virginity wife William IX woman WOMEN TO DISPOSE words writes Yahwist
Popular passages
Page 33 - Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
Page 30 - Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church : and he is the saviour of the body.
Page 84 - If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Page 84 - He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
Page 40 - You are the devil's gateway: you are the unsealer of that forbidden tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's image, man. On account of your desert - that is, death - even the Son of God had to die.
Page 107 - Let Mary leave us, :"for women are not worthy of Life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself -^ male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Page 23 - And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Page 201 - They effected a change which has left no corner of our ethics, our imagination, or our daily life untouched, and they erected impassable barriers between us and the classical past or the Oriental present. Compared with this revolution the Renaissance is a mere ripple on the surface of literature.
Page 84 - The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy, both in body and in spirit : but she that is married, careth for the»things of the world, how she may please her husband.