- 328 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Cross-dressing in the Middle Ages
About this book
By encompassing the hagiographies of the first centuries, the most famous case of Joan of Arc, numerous chivalrous novels, and the overlooked accounts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, this is the first study to consider cross-dressing for the entire medieval age.
Cross-dressing is a thought-provoking practice in a world that, in theory, adheres to neat distinctions of the functions and attires of males and females in society; this volume demonstrates that only a long-term analysis can fully account for the phenomenon in its various facets. If dress is a gender marker, the argument that it also marks many other conditions beyond the man–woman binary cannot be ignored. There is a dress for the cleric and one for the layman; there is the dress of the rich and that of the poor. In some cases, these other binary distinctions are intertwined with that of sex and gender, and this intersectional perspective is developed through a wide range of sources read with philological rigour.
The narrative style makes this book accessible to both students and general readers interested in the history of sexuality, gender history, and medieval studies.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Half Title page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figure
- Introduction
- 1 “The woman shall not wear that which pertains unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment”
- 2 Transvestite saints
- 3 Discussing masculinities
- 4 Female cross-dressers in chivalric literature
- 5 Male cross-dressers: The carnivalesque
- 6 Chevaleresses, female warriors, and other fantastic creatures
- 7 Cross-dressers on trial
- 8 Joan of Arc
- Epilogue
- Selected Readings
- Index