Constructing Virtue and Vice
Femininity and Laughter in Courtly Society (ca. 1150–1300)
By (author) Olga V. Trokhimenko Series edited by Jutta Eming Series edited by Arthur Groos Series edited by Volker Mertens Series edited by Matthias Meyer Series edited by Ann Marie Rasmussen Series edited by Hans-Jochen Schiewer Series edited by Markus Stock
Hardback (Published)
(May 2014)
ISBN: 9783847101192
6.34 x 9.25 inches
Price: $74.00
On back order
The study examines textual representations of women’s laughter and smiling and their imagined connection to female virtue in a wide variety of discourses and contexts of the German Middle Ages, including medieval epic, ecclesiastical texts, conduct literature, lyric, and sculpture. By engaging with the competing, and at times contradictory, views of female laughter, it reaffirms a disputatious nature of medieval culture, in which multiple views of femininity, sexuality, and virtue stood in a conflicting, yet productive, dialogue with one another. The society that emerges when one looks at medieval German texts is always ambivalent: it thrives on and enjoys talking about sensuality and eroticism, while being constrained by the conventions of polite behavior and the fear of sin; it relies on the ritual use of laughter, while marking it as a sign of lust and perdition. Women’s laughter thus offers an important way into understanding medieval views of gender because it combines physicality with shifting and conflicting cultural norms.
Olga V. Trokhimenko is an Associate Professor of German at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
- By (author) Olga V. Trokhimenko
- Series edited by Jutta Eming
- Series edited by Arthur Groos
- Series edited by Volker Mertens
- Series edited by Matthias Meyer
- Series edited by Ann Marie Rasmussen
- Series edited by Hans-Jochen Schiewer
- Series edited by Markus Stock
"The author's prose is readable and her argumentation clear, and the book would serve well in a course of medieval German literature and society or gender in history." --Adam Oberlin, The Medieval Review, 15.08.46
—
Other Titles in this Series
Grounding Community
Eckhartian Mysticism and Social Reform from the Late Middle Ages to the Fin de Siècle
Kulturen des Manuskriptzeitalters
Ergebnisse der Amerikanisch-Deutschen Arbeitstagung an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen vom 17. bis 20. Oktober 2002
Diz vliegende bîspel
Ambiguity in Medieval and Early Modern Literature. Essays in Honor of Arthur Groos
Similar Books
Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs
An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches
Volume 90
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
John Dunstaple Reading Boethius
John Dunstaple’s Annotations to Boethius’s “De institutione musica” in the Manuscript Oxford, Corpus Christi College Library, MS 118
Latin Ptolemaic Writings on Astronomy and Astrology to 1700 A.D.
A Comprehensive Survey of the Works, Manuscripts and Early Printed Editions
Volume 3
Linguistic and Cultural Dynamics in a Frontier Society
New Perspectives on Northeastern Bavaria and Western Bohemia in the Early Middle Ages
Volume 9
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Nicholas of Lyra’s Commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Franciscan Exegesis in a Time of Crisis
Power and Women in Southeast and Central Europe in Late Medieval and Early Modern Period (1300-1600)
Volume 10
The Embodied Court in the Premodern World
Understanding the Physicality, Performativity and Lifecycle of Bodies at Court in Europe and Beyond, 1400-1800
Volume 4