Description
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain's Hitchcock Medallion. A ground-breaking interdisciplinary approach to the medieval manor pre- and post-Conquest. SHORTLISTED for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain's Hitchcock Medallion. Medieval manors have long been the subject of academic study, though the ways in which these houses reflected and shaped - and were shaped by - their occupants to express social authority have not yet been fully explored. This book undertakes a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary examination of them, aiming to provide a fuller account of how concepts of space and domestic place were understood, represented, and used by their occupants in England and Normandy from c. 900 to c. 1200, and how this illuminates aspects of gender and authority in the period. Blending approaches from archaeology and history, it uses evidence from Anglo-Saxon wills, standing and excavated manorial sites in England and Normandy, and a variety of written texts from vitae to history to poetry, in order to delve into, deconstruct and reconstruct gendered notions of authority in the period. This book ultimately challenges ideas of gendered objects and places through the medieval construction of authoritative personae, and the use and representation of medieval manors, focusing on the household as a place and space of performance in the age of the Norman Conquest.
Trade ReviewThis work succeeds in proving that the wealthy showed off their abundance and power through the objects they collected and the spaces where they and their objects were displayed. It is clearly and often cleverly written. [...] It neatly confirms the importance of interdisciplinary works and should easily find a home with both historians and archaeologists. -- SPECULUM
Fascinating and illuminating. * FACHRS NEWSLETTER *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Whys and Wherefores Chapter One: Acting with Objects Chapter Two: Experiencing Spaces I - People and Privacy Chapter Three: Experiencing Spaces II - Buildings and Spaces Chapter Four: Writing Places Conclusions: The Curated Space
