A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages
Authors and Contributors      Edited by Kim M. Phillips
SeriesThe Cultural Histories Series
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:344
Dimensions(mm): Height 244,Width 169
ISBN/Barcode 9781350009684
ClassificationsDewey:305.420902
Audience
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Illustrations 55 bw illus

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publication Date 22 September 2016
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The medieval era has been described as 'the Age of Chivalry' and 'the Age of Faith' but also as 'the Dark Ages'. Medieval women have often been viewed as subject to a punishing misogyny which limited their legal rights and economic activities, but some scholars have claimed they enjoyed a 'rough and ready equality' with men. The contrasting figures of Eve and the Virgin Mary loom over historians' interpretations of the period 1000-1500. Yet a wealth of recent historiography goes behind these conventional motifs, showing how medieval women's lives were shaped by status, age, life-stage, geography and religion as well as by gender. A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages presents essays on medieval women's life cycle, bodies and sexuality, religion and popular beliefs, medicine and disease, public and private realms, education and work, power, and artistic representation to illustrate the diversity of medieval women's lives and constructions of femininity.

Author Biography

Kim M. Phillips is Senior Lecturer in History, University of Auckland, New Zealand, and author of Medieval Maidens: Young Women and Gender in England, 1275-1540 and co-author of Sex Before Sexuality: A Premodern History.