Women and the Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and the Limits of Epic Masculinity

by S. Poor, J. Schulman

Overview

These essays explore the place, function and meaning of women as characters, authors, constructs and symbols in Medieval epics from Persia, Spain, France, England, Germany and Scandinavia. Usually believed to narrate the deeds of men at war, this book looks at the key roles often played by women and the impact of this on the history of gender.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403966025
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	06/05/2007
Series:	The New Middle Ages
Edition description:	2007
Pages:	299
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

SARA S. POOR is Assistant Professor of Medieval German Literature at Princeton University, USA.

JANA K. SCHULMAN is Associate Professor of Old English and Old Norse at Western Michigan University, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction; S.S.Poor & J.K.Schulman FEMALE HEROICS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER Ethical Acts and Annihilation: Feminine Heroics in Girart de Roussillon; W.Burgwinkle Women Characters and the Limits of Patriarchy in the Poema de Mio Cid and Mocedades de Rodrigo; T.Caldin Caught Between Worlds: Gendering the Maiden Warrior in Old Norse; W.Layher GENDER AND GENRE Women in the Old French Crusade Cycle and Other Epic Works: From Historical Background to Anxiety Personified; S.G.Heller Women in the Shahnameh: Exotics and Natives, Rebellious Legends, and Dutiful Histories; D.Davis Chaucer's Queer Epic; E.Salisbury Monstrous Mates: The Leading Ladies of the Nibelungenlied and V÷lsunga Saga; K.Grimstad & R.M.Wakefield 'A Guest is in the Hall': Gendered Violence at Feasts in Icelandic Epic; J.K.Schulman AUTHORSHIP, PATRONAGE, AND THE GESTURES OF LORDSHIP What Hrotsvit Did to Virgil: Expanding the Boundaries of the Classical Epic in Tenth-Century Ottonian Saxony; K.Olson Female Nobility, Patronage, and the Making of Castilian-Leonese Epic; M.Vaquero Beowulf's Queens and the Politics of Eleventh-Century England; H.Damico Brunhild's Smile: The Politics of Emotion in the Nibelungenlied; K.Starkey

Editorial Reviews

'...a welcome and imaginative treatment of a too-little investigated topic.' - Carolyne Larrington, Modern Language Review

From the Publisher