Zeikowitz explores both affirming and denigrating discourses of male same-sex desire in diverse fourteenth-century chivalric texts and describes the sociopolitical forces motivating those discourses. He attempts to dethrone traditional heteronormative views by drawing attention to culturally normative 'queer' desire. Zeikowitz articulates possible homoeroticized spectatorial interactions between male readers and imagined or actual model knights, dramatized accounts of same-sex unions, and mutually stimulating - or competing - forces of homosocial and heterosexual desire in chivalric texts,...

Joan of Arc is an unusual saint. Canonized in 1920 as a virgin, she died in 1431 as a condemned heretic. Uneducated, militant, and youthful, she obeyed 'Voices' that counselled her to pursue an unprecedented vocation. The various trial records provide a wealth of evidence about how Joan and others understood her spiritual life. This collection explores multiple facets of Joan's prayerful life. Two-thirds of the essays focus on Joan in her own time; the later chapters study Joan's formative influence upon modern women. Taken together, these essays offer new perspectives on the heroism of...

How is late medieval literature inflected by spiritual insight and desires? What weaves of literary cloth especially suit religious insight? This collection of seventeen new essays by distinguished scholars of medieval literature on subjects of mindfulness and spirituality in later medieval (especially English) literature is gathered to honor Brown University Professor Emerita Elizabeth D. Kirk.

For the past fifty years, debates about which text of Malory scholars and teachers should prefer have sparked much controversy: which is the most authentic or authoritative, Caxton, the Winchester version, or a mixture of both (as proposed by Vinaver)? The papers in this volume represent the most important contributions to the dialogue; previously published articles have been updated where relevant and new issues are presented in several original essays, while the introductions place the argument in its theoretical and historical contexts. Professor BONNIE WHEELER teaches at the Southern...

The essays in this volume have a common theme and preoccupation: an intention to present medieval women - in life, literature, hagiography and art - as they thought of themselves, teased from the work of theirintermediaries (Hildegard of Bingen, Christine of Pisan) or from the works, words and social milieux of men (Chaucer's women, Chretien's patrons, the empress Theodora and others). Feminea Mediaevalia is designed to foreground feminine and feminist topics and issues in the field of medieval studies. Contributors: DEBORAH EVERHART, STEPHEN STALLCUP, JENNIFER R. GOODMAN, BONNIE WHEELER,...

This book re-evaluates the perception of "courtly love" in Old French verse. Adams traces how these verses explore the emotional trials of amour and propose coping methods for the lovelorn.

Joan of Arc is an unusual saint. The various trial records provide a wealth of evidence about how Joan and others understood her spiritual life. This collection explores multiple facets of Joan's prayerful life. Taken together, these essays offer new perspectives on the heroism of Joan's original way of sanctity.

This book explores various discourses of male same-sex desire in diverse fourteenth-century chivalric texts.

By drawing on images from late medieval culture as well as from historical documents and literary texts, Engaging Words shows how reading became a cultural metaphor in the late Middle Ages that transformed the way the Western world thought about identity and social roles.