Description
Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe provides a comprehensive overview of the gender rules encountered in Europe in the period between approximately 500 and 1500 C.E. The essays collected in this volume speak to interpretative challenges common to all fields of women''s and gender history - that is, how best to uncover the experiences of ordinary people from archives formed mainly by and about elite males, and how to combine social histories of lived experiences with cultural histories of gendered discourses and identities. The collection focuses on Western Europe in the Middle Ages but offers some consideration of medieval Islam and Byzantium. The Handbook is structured into seven sections: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thought; law in theory and practice; domestic life and material culture; labour, land, and economy; bodies and sexualities; gender and holiness; and the interplay of continuity and change throughout the medieval period. It contains material from s
Trade Reviewa monumental undertaking. It has to be stated straight away, though, that this book is also an intellectually monumental and much-needed project that brings together the latest scholarship and thinking on women and gender studies... Bennett and Karras are to be congratulated on establishing a handbook that brings together an exciting range of the most up-to-date research on gender. * Gabriele Neher, History Today *
Students will appreciate the Handbook for its helpful introductions, while more advanced readers and specialists in the field will find the new interpretations, provocative thinking and illustrative material inspiring. The volume ought to be on everyone's bookshelf or, in electronic form, bookmarked on one's computer. The editors should be congratulated on having gathered together the very best in current scholarship. * Elisabeth Van Houts, English Historical Review *
Table of ContentsPART I GENDERED THINKING; PART II LOOKING THROUGH THE LAW; PART III DOMESTIC LIVES; PART IV LAND, LABOR, ECONOMY; PART V BODIES, PLEASURES, DESIRES; PART VI ENGENDERING CHRISTIAN HOLINESS; PART VII TURNING POINTS AND PLACES
