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Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts » (1st Edition)

Book cover image of Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts by Alcuin Blamires

Authors: Alcuin Blamires (Editor), Karen Pratt (With), C. W. Marx
ISBN-13: 9780198710394, ISBN-10: 0198710399
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: November 1992
Edition: 1st Edition

Author Biography: Alcuin Blamires

St David's University College, Lampeter, University of Wales

Book Synopsis

"It is impossible / That any clerk wol speke good of wyves." Behind the words of Chaucer's Wife of Bath lies a vast corpus of medieval misogynistic writings. These texts, which range from those of the Church Fathers to a rich array of vernacular literature, have had a profound effect on the status of women in the West. Despite the recent surge of investigations into women's situation, however, no one book has sought to collect the key voices of medieval antifeminism, let alone to present the voices sometimes raised, even at that epoch, in defence of women. This new volume meets the urgent need for a single and substantial sourcebook of these materials in modern translation, including an introduction, notes, and commentary. The accessibility of the better-known texts here (from Jerome to Walter Map; from Héloise and Abelard to Christine de Pizan and Chaucer) will be welcomed by those engaged in medieval and women's studies; the lesser-known writings concerning, for instance, the sexual "double standard", and women and the priesthood, will provide unexpected discoveries for specialists and beginners alike. The book also features a surprising range of early texts championing women—including material never previously available in translation.

	List of Plates
	Abbreviations
	Introduction	1
I	The Roots of Antifeminist Tradition	17
(i)	Ancient Satire	17
17
	From The Art of Love and Amores	18
25
	From Satire VI	25
(ii)	Scripture	31
(iii)	Physiology and Etymology	38
	From Generation of Animals	39
	From On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body	41
	From Etymologies	43
(iv)	'Matter' and 'Form' in Later Writings	46
	From Monologium	46
	From the Summa theologiae	47
	From The History of the Destruction of Troy	48
2	The Church Fathers	50
	From The Appearance of Women	50
	From Homily IX on St Paul's Epistle to Timothy	58
59
	From On Widows	60
	From Paradise	61
	From the Commentary on Luke	61
	From Against Jovinian	63
	From Letter 22, to Eustochium	74
	From Letter 77, to Oceanus	76
77
	From Confessions	78
	From The Literal Meaning of Genesis	79
	From City of God	81
3	The Legacy of the Church Fathers	83
	From the Decretum	83
87
	From The Story of His Misfortunes	88
	From Letter 3: Heloise to Abelard	89
	From The Story of His Misfortunes	91
91
	From the Summa theologiae	92
	From Tristan	94
	Rule for Anchoresses	95
	From Part II	95
	From Part IV	97
4	The Satirical Tradition in Medieval Latin	99
	The Life of Secundus	99
	The Femme Fatale	100
	The Letter of Valerius to Ruffinus, against Marriage	103
	From On Love	114
	Against Marrying	125
5	Antifeminist Tales	130
	The Book of the Wiles of Women	130
	The Widow	135
	From Sermon 66 in Sermons for All	144
6	Vernacular Adaptations in the Later Middle Ages	148
	From The Romance of the Rose	148
	From The Corbaccio	166
	From The Lamentations of Matheolus	177
7	The Wife of Bath	198
	The Wife of Bath's Prologue	198
8	Responses to Antifeminism	223
	The Thrush and the Nightingale	224
	The Good Woman	228
	From Letter 6, 'On the Origin of Nuns'	232
	From The Book of Consolation and Advice	236
	The Response to Richard de Fournival's Bestiary of Love	242
	The Southern Passion	244
	From A Lover's Confession	248
250
	'Whether women are permitted to instruct men'	251
	'Whether women are suitable to consecrate the sacrament'	255
	From The Register of Bishop Trefnant	257
	From Dives and Pauper	260
	Merelaus the Emperor	270
9	A Woman Defends Women	278
	From The Letter of the God of Love	279
	From The Quarrel of the Rose	286
	From The City of Ladies	289
	Bibliography	303
	Index	315