Description
Book SynopsisThe medieval monster is a slippery construct, and its referents include a range of religious, racial, and corporeal aberrations. In this study, Miller argues that one incarnation of monstrosity in the Middle Agesthe female bodyexists in special relation to medieval teratology insofar as it resists the customary marginalization that defined most other monstrous groups in the Middle Ages. Though medieval maps located the monstrous races on the distant margins of the civilized world, the monstrous female body took the form of mother, sister, wife, and daughter. It was, therefore, pervasive, proximate, and necessary on social, sexual, and reproductive grounds. Miller considers several significant texts representing authoritative discourses on female monstrosity in the Middle Ages: the Pseudo-Ovidian poem, De vetula (The Old Woman); a treatise on human generation erroneously attributed to Albert the Great, De secretis mulierum (On the Secrets of Women), and Julian of No
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"This is a fine, stimulating book which constructs a subtle, complex argument not only about monsters, but the theorizing of men and women in the thirteenth and fourtteenth centuries."-- The Medieval Review
"Makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the complex workings of medieval teratological discourse, its constructive and deconstructive capacities, and its role within the formation of medieval socioreligious material and textual identities."- Journal of British Studies
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Monstrous Borders of the Female Body 1: Ovidian Poetry, Virgins, Mothers, and Monsters: Ovidian and Pseudo-Ovidian Bodies 2: Gynecology, Gynecological Secrets: Blood, Seed, and Monstrous Births in De secretis mulierum 3: Mystical Theology, Monstrous Love: The Permeable Body of Christ in Julian of Norwich’s Showings Conclusion: The Monstrous Borders of the Self Notes Bibliography Index
