Fragmentation and Redemption
Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Fragmentation and Redemption
Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion
About this book
Fragmentation and Redemption is first of all about bodies and the relationship of part to whole in the high Middle Ages, a period in which the overcoming of partition and putrefaction was the very image of paradise. It is also a study of gender, that is, a study of how sex roles and possibilities are conceptualized by both men and women, even though asymmetric power relationships and men's greater access to knowledge have informed the cultural construction of categories such as "male" and "female," "heretic" and "saint." Finally, these essays are about the creativity of women's voices and women's bodies.
Bynum discusses how some women manipulated the dominant tradition to free themselves from the burden of fertility, yet made female fertility a powerful symbol; how some used Christian dichotomies of male / female and powerful / weak to facilitate their own imitatio Christi, yet undercut these dichotomies by subsuming them into humanitas. Medieval women spoke little of inequality and little of gender, yet there is a profound connection between their symbols and communities and the twentieth-century determination to speak of gender and "study women."
Frequently asked questions
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- In Praise of Fragments: History in the Comic Mode
- I. Women’s Stories, Women’s Symbols: A Critique of Victor Turner’s Theory of Liminality
- II. The Mysticism and Asceticism of Medieval Women: Some Comments on the Typologies of Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch
- III. The Body of Christ in the Later Middle Ages: A Reply to Leo Steinberg
- IV. Women Mystics and Eucharistic Devotion in the Thirteenth Century
- V. “… And Woman His Humanity”: Female Imagery in the Religious Writing of the Later Middle Ages
- VI. The Female Body and Religious Practice in the Later Middle Ages
- VII. Material Continuity, Personal Survival and the Resurrection of the Body: A Scholastic Discussion in Its Medieval and Modern Contexts
- Photo Credits
- Notes
- Index