Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination : Matrilineal Legacies in the High Middle Ages PDF
by Emma O. Berat
Part of the Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature series
Description
Uncovering the many striking female alternatives to patrilineal narratives in medieval texts, Emma O.
Bérat explores strategies of writing and illustration that creatively and purposefully depict women's legacies.
Genealogy, used to justify a character's present power and project it onto the future, was crucial to medieval political, literary, and historical thought.
While patrilineage often limited women to exceptional or passive roles, other genealogical forms that represent and promote women's claims are widespread in medieval texts.
Female characters transmit power through book patronage and reading, enduring landmarks, and international travel, as well as childbearing and succession.
These flexible – if messy – genealogies reflect the web of political, biological, and spiritual relations that frequently characterized elite women's lives.
Examining hagiography, chronicles, genealogical rolls, and French, English, and Latin romances, as well as associated codices and images, Bérat highlights the centrality of female characters and historical women to this fundamental aspect of medieval consciousness.
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Download - Immediately Available
- Format:PDF
- Publisher:Cambridge University Press
- Publication Date:13/03/2024
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- ISBN:9781009434768
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Information
-
Download - Immediately Available
- Format:PDF
- Publisher:Cambridge University Press
- Publication Date:13/03/2024
- Category:
- ISBN:9781009434768
