Download or read book Common Women written by Ruth Mazo Karras and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1998-04-23 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a sensitive use of a wide variety of imaginative and didactic texts, Ruth Karras shows that while prostitutes as individuals were marginalized within medieval culture, prostitution as an institution was central to the medieval understanding of what it meant to be a woman. This important work will be of interest to scholars and students of history, women's studies, and the history of sexuality.
Download or read book Common Women Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England written by Ruth Mazo Karras Associate Professor of History Temple University and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1996-01-31 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Common women" in medieval England were prostitutes, whose distinguishing feature was not that they took money for sex but that they belonged to all men in common. Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England tells the stories of these women's lives: their entrance into the trade because of poor job and marriage prospects or because of seduction or rape; their experiences as streetwalkers, brothel workers or the medieval equivalent of call girls; their customers, from poor apprentices to priests to wealthy foreign merchants; and their relations with those among whom they lived. Common Women crosses the boundary from social to cultural history by asking not only about the experiences of prostitutes but also about the meaning of prostitution in medieval culture. The teachings of the church attributed both lust and greed, in generous measure, to women as a group. Stories of repentant whores were popular among medieval preachers and writers because prostitutes were the epitome of feminine sin. Through a sensitive use of a wide variety of imaginative and didactic texts, Ruth Karras shows that while prostitutes as individuals were marginalized within medieval culture, prostitution as an institution was central to the medieval understanding of what it meant to be a woman. This important work will be of interest to scholars and students of history, women's studies, and the history of sexuality.
Download or read book Sexuality in Medieval Europe written by Ruth Mazo Karras and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-01-20 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of figures -- Acknowledgments -- Publishers' acknowledgments -- 1 Sex and the Middle Ages -- 2 The sexuality of chastity -- 3 Sex and marriage -- 4 Women outside of marriage -- 5 Men outside of marriage -- Afterword: Medieval and modern sexuality -- Further reading -- Index
Download or read book Sexuality in Medieval Europe written by Ruth Mazo Karras and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The best short introduction to medieval sexuality that I have read: a remarkable book.' -Vern Bullough, Reviews in History 'Undergraduate and graduate students will find in Karras' book an extremely helpful guide to what can be a confusing and perplexing body of scholarship. Even established scholars are likely to find it enlightening as well as enjoyable.' - James Brundage, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 'An impressively synthetic and highly readable survey of current scholarship on medieval sexuality that will be of considerable use in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.' - Emma Campbell, Signs Sexuality in medieval Europe has become a vital scholarly field that is now recognized as central to the study of the Middle Ages. Using a wide collection of evidence from the late Antique period up until the fifteenth century, this new edition of the standard overview on the topic demonstrates that medieval culture developed sexual identities that were quite different from the identities we think of today, yet that were still in some ways ancestral to our own. Challenging the way the Middle Ages have been treated in general histories of sexuality, Ruth Mazo Karras shows how views at the time were conflicted and complicated; there was no single medieval attitude towards sexuality any more than there is one modern attitude. The well-known lusty priest and the 'repressed' penitent have their roles to play, but set here in a wider context these figures take on fascinating new dimensions. Focusing on acceptable marital sexual activity as well as what was seen as transgressive, the chapters cover such topics as chastity, the role of the church, and non-reproductive activity. Combining an overview of research on the topic with original interpretations, now updated with the latest scholarship and additional material from medieval Christian Europe, Jewish medieval culture and the Islamic world, Sexuality in Medieval Europe is essential reading for all those who study medieval history and culture, or who have an interest in the way sexuality and sexual identity have been viewed in the past.
Download or read book Carnal Knowledge written by Martin Ingram and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-23 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How was the law used to control sex in Tudor England? What were the differences between secular and religious practice? This major study, based on a wide range of church and secular court archives, explores sexual regulation in London and provincial England before, during and immediately after the Reformation.
Download or read book The Fires of Lust written by Katherine Harvey and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2022-11-28 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illuminating exploration of the surprisingly familiar sex lives of ordinary medieval people. The medieval humoral system of medicine suggested that it was possible to die from having too much—or too little—sex, while the Roman Catholic Church taught that virginity was the ideal state. Holy men and women committed themselves to lifelong abstinence in the name of religion. Everyone was forced to conform to restrictive rules about who they could have sex with, in what way, how often, and even when, and could be harshly punished for getting it wrong. Other experiences are more familiar. Like us, medieval people faced challenges in finding a suitable partner or trying to get pregnant (or trying not to). They also struggled with many of the same social issues, such as whether prostitution should be legalized. Above all, they shared our fondness for dirty jokes and erotic images. By exploring their sex lives, the book brings ordinary medieval people to life and reveals details of their most personal thoughts and experiences. Ultimately, it provides us with an important and intimate connection to the past.
Download or read book Women in England in the Middle Ages written by Jennifer Ward and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2006-10-12 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval women faced many of the problems of their modern counterparts in bringing up their families, balancing family and work, and responding to the demands of their communities. Of many women in the period of a thousand years before 1500 we know little or nothing, though their typical ways of life, on farms or in the towns, can be reconstructed with accuracy from a variety of sources. We know more about a far smaller number of elite women, including queens such as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Margaret of Anjou; noblewomen, whose characters and attitudes can be sensed directly or indirectly; and a variety of religious women. Literary sources help flesh out real attitudes, such as those of Chaucer's Wife of Bath. Jennifer Ward shows the life-cycle of medieval women, from birth, via marriage and child-rearing, to widowhood and death. She also brings out the slow changes in the position of women over a millennium.
Download or read book Prostitution and Subjectivity in Late Medieval Germany written by Jamie Page and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021-01-29 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on legal case studies, this book focuses on how gender discourse shaped the lives of prostitutes in medieval Germany.
Download or read book Local Identities in Late Medieval and Early Modern England written by Daniel Woolf and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-10-17 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by the path-breaking work of Robert Tittler, the authors explore late Medieval and Early Modern community and identity across England. They examine the decline of neighbourliness, the politics of market towns, clerical status, charity, crime, and ways in which overlapping communities of court and country, London and Lancashire, relate.
Download or read book Prostitution in Medieval Society written by Leah Lydia Otis and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-02-15 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Prostitution in Medieval Society, a monograph about Languedoc between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, is also much more than that: it is a compelling narrative about the social construction of sexuality." – Catharine R. Stimpson
Download or read book Slaves and Warriors in Medieval Britain and Ireland 800 1200 written by David Wyatt and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009-04-24 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concentrating upon the lifestyle, attitudes and motivations of the slave-holders and slave-raiders, this book explores the activities and behavioural codes of Britain and Ireland’s warrior-centred societies c.800-1200 highlighting the significance of slavery for constructions of power, ethnic identity and gender.
Download or read book Common Prostitutes and Ordinary Citizens written by J. Laite and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-12-02 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1885 and 1960, laws and policies designed to repress prostitution dramatically shaped London's commercial sex industry. This book examines how laws translated into street-level reality, explores how women who sold sex experienced criminalization, and charts the complex dimensions of the underground sexual economy in the modern metropolis.
Download or read book City of Dreadful Delight written by Judith R. Walkowitz and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-06-14 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From tabloid exposes of child prostitution to the grisly tales of Jack the Ripper, narratives of sexual danger pulsated through Victorian London. Expertly blending social history and cultural criticism, Judith Walkowitz shows how these narratives reveal the complex dramas of power, politics, and sexuality that were being played out in late nineteenth-century Britain, and how they influenced the language of politics, journalism, and fiction. Victorian London was a world where long-standing traditions of class and gender were challenged by a range of public spectacles, mass media scandals, new commercial spaces, and a proliferation of new sexual categories and identities. In the midst of this changing culture, women of many classes challenged the traditional privileges of elite males and asserted their presence in the public domain. An important catalyst in this conflict, argues Walkowitz, was W. T. Stead's widely read 1885 article about child prostitution. Capitalizing on the uproar caused by the piece and the volatile political climate of the time, women spoke of sexual danger, articulating their own grievances against men, inserting themselves into the public discussion of sex to an unprecedented extent, and gaining new entree to public spaces and journalistic practices. The ultimate manifestation of class anxiety and gender antagonism came in 1888 with the tabloid tales of Jack the Ripper. In between, there were quotidien stories of sexual possibility and urban adventure, and Walkowitz examines them all, showing how women were not simply figures in the imaginary landscape of male spectators, but also central actors in the stories of metropolotin life that reverberated in courtrooms, learned journals, drawing rooms, street corners, and in the letters columns of the daily press. A model of cultural history, this ambitious book will stimulate and enlighten readers across a broad range of interests.
Download or read book Handbook of Medieval Sexuality written by Vern L. Bullough and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2000 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of sexuality in the Middle Ages is examined here in 19 articles written specifically for this handbook. This volume seeks to offer a useful guide to the wealth of material and research that is available yet often overlooked.
Download or read book Holy Harlots in Medieval English Religious Literature written by Juliette Vuille and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2021-04-16 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First comprehensive investigation of the major significance of female sinners turned saints in medieval literature.
Download or read book Gender and Petty Crime in Late Medieval England written by Karen Jones and published by Boydell Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A large proportion of late medieval people, were accused of some kind of misdemeanour. This book studies gender and crime in late medieval England. It shows how charges against women differed from those against men, and how assumptions and fears about masculinity and femininity were reflected and reinforced by the local courts.
Download or read book The Measure of Woman written by Marie A. Kelleher and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2011-06-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the end of the Middle Ages, the ius commune—the combination of canon and Roman law—had formed the basis for all law in continental Europe, along with its patriarchal system of categorizing women. Throughout medieval Europe, women regularly found themselves in court, suing or being sued, defending themselves against criminal accusations, or prosecuting others for crimes committed against them or their families. Yet choosing to litigate entailed accepting the conceptual vocabulary of the learned law, thereby reinforcing the very legal and social notions that often subordinated them. In The Measure of Woman Marie A. Kelleher explores the complex relationship between women and legal culture in Spain's Crown of Aragon during the late medieval period. Aragonese courts measured women according to three factors: their status in relation to men, their relative sexual respectability, and their conformity to ideas about the female sex as a whole. Yet in spite of this situation, Kelleher argues, women were able to play a crucial role in shaping their own legal identities while working within the parameters of the written law. The Measure of Woman reveals that women were not passive recipients—or even victims—of the legal system. Rather, medieval women actively used the conceptual vocabulary of the law, engaging with patriarchal legal assumptions as part of their litigation strategies. In the process, they played an important role in the formation of a gendered legal culture that would shape the lives of women throughout Western Europe and beyond for centuries to come.
