Exploration of differences between women: good women who were absorbed into society, and those whose social role condemned them to its fringes.

As distinct from the many recent collections and studies of medieval literature and culture that have focused on gender and sexuality as their major themes, this collection considers and serves to re-think and re-situate religion and sexuality together. Including 'traditional' works such as Chaucer and the Pearl-poet, as well as less well known and studied texts - such as alchemical texts and the Wohunge group - the contributors here focus on the meeting point of these two often-examined concepts. They seek an understanding of where sex and religion distinguish themselves from one another, and where they do not. This volume locates the Divine and the Erotic within the continuum of experience and devotion that characterize the paradox of the medieval world. Not merely original in their approaches, these authors seek a new vision of how these two inter-connected themes - sexuality and the Divine - meet, connect, distinguish themselves, and merge within medieval life, language, and literature.

This book provides an evocative insight into the property, power, remarriage, and identity of high-ranking widows in two fundamentally different societies, Iceland and Yorkshire. The legal position of widows in each region is examined in light of evidence from charters, royal records and sagas to establish a detailed picture of practice. Comparison and family reconstruction are important elements, enabling the book to emphasize the placement of widows within the context of society and its institutions, and to consider fully the impact of individual circumstances on the widows’ opportunities for action. The result offers a fresh approach that tests widely accepted generalizations about widows’ independence, highlights differences between regions, and suggests the need to reconsider traditional, rigid definitions of kinship systems.

Presenting new light on the reality of religious life in Normandy, the author uses ideas about space and gender to examine the social pressures arising from such interaction around four main themes: display, reception and intrusion, enclosure and the family.

This study analyzes the fear of beastly transformation that recurs throughout Medieval literature. Yamamoto explores how humans envisioned animals with human characteristics in bestiaries and literatures that involve aspects of the hunt and heraldry. Minor texts, as well as major works likeChaucer's "Knight's Tale," are investigated. Additionally, she explores both examples of humans changing into animal form and those that hover enigmatically between species as wild men and women. Investigating this topic, she looks to Alexander romances, the poetry of Gower, and othersources.

Written primarily for undergraduates, this book weighs the evidence for and against the various theories relating to the position of women at different time periods. Professor Mate examines the major issues deciding the position of women in medieval English society, asking questions such as, did women enjoy a rough equality in the Anglo-Saxon period that they subsequently lost? Did queens at certain periods exercise real political clout or was their power limited to questions of patronage? Did women's participation in the economy grant them considerable independence and allow them to postpone or delay marriage? Professor Mate also demonstrates that class, as well as gender, was very important in determining age at marriage and opportunities for power and influence. Although some women at certain times did make short-term gains, Professor Mate challenges the dominant view that major transformations in women's position occurred in the century after the Black Death.