Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures » (New Edition)

Sahar Amer is Associate Professor of Asian and International Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Crossing Borders explores cross-cultural representations of gender and sexual practices in the medieval French and Arabic traditions. Amer demonstrates that the medieval Arabic tradition on eroticism played a determining role in French literary writings on gender and sexuality in the Middle Ages.

Note on Transliteration     vii
Preface     ix
Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries: A Cross-Cultural Approach to Same-Sex Love Between Women     1
Crossing Linguistic Borders: Etienne de Fougeres's Livre des Manieres and Arabic Erotic Treatises     29
Crossing Sartorial Lines: Female Same-Sex Marriage in Yde et Olive and The Story of Qamar al-Zaman and Princess Boudour from the One Thousand and One Nights     50
Crossing the Lines of Friendship: Jean Renart's Escoufle, Saracen Silk, and Intercultural Encounters     88
Crossing Social and Cultural Borders: Jean Renart's Escoufle and the Traditions of Zarf, Jawaris, and Qaynas in the Islamicate World     121
Conclusion: Beyond Orientalist Presuppositions     161
Notes     167
Bibliography     217
Index     239
Acknowledgments     251