About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherRoutledge

ISBN-101409447499

ISBN-139781409447498

eBay Product ID (ePID)128683622

Product Key Features

Number of Pages258 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameConflicting Femininities in Medieval German Literature

Publication Year2012

SubjectMedieval, European / German, Subjects & Themes / Women, Subjects & Themes / Religion, General, Sexuality & Gender Studies, Sociology / Marriage & Family

TypeTextbook

AuthorKarina Marie Ash

Subject AreaLiterary Criticism, Religion, Social Science

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.9 in

Item Weight21.7 Oz

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width6.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceCollege Audience

LCCN2012-014716

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal830.9002

SynopsisDrastic changes in lay religiosity during the High Middle Ages spurred anxiety about women forsaking their secular roles as wives and mothers for religious ones as nuns and beguines. This anxiety and the subsequent need to model an ideal of feminine behavior for the laity is particularly expressed in the German versions of Latin and French narratives. Using thirteenth-century penitentials, monastic exempla, and sermons, Karina Marie Ash clarifies how secular wifehood was recast as a quasi-religious role and, in German epics and romances from the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, how female characters are adapted to promote the salvific nature of worldly love in ways that echo the pastoral reevaluation of women at that time. Then she argues that mid and late thirteenth-century German literature not only reflects this impulse to idealize women's roles in lay society but also to promote an alternative model of femininity that deploys ways of privileging secular roles for women over religious ones. These continuously evolving readaptations of female protagonists across cultures and across centuries reflect fictive solutions for real historical concerns about women that not only complement contemporary pastoral and legal reforms but are also unique to medieval German literature., Conflicting Femininities in Medieval German Literature illuminates anxieties about women's roles in society in light of lay religious movements during the High Middle Ages and explains how these anxieties are uniquely addressed in medieval German epics, legends, pastoral works, romances, saints' lives and sermons., Drastic changes in lay religiosity during the High Middle Ages spurred anxiety about women forsaking their secular roles as wives and mothers for religious ones as nuns and beguines. This anxiety and the subsequent need to model an ideal of feminine behavior for the laity is particularly expressed in the German versions of Latin and French narratives. Using thirteenth-century penitentials, monastic exempla, and sermons, Karina Marie Ash clarifies how secular wifehood was recast as a quasi-religious role and, in German epics and romances from the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, how female characters are adapted to promote the salvific nature of worldly love in ways that echo the pastoral reevaluation of women at that time. Then she argues that mid and late thirteenth-century German literature not only reflects this impulse to idealize women's roles in lay society but also to promote an alternative model of femininity that deploys ways of privileging secular roles for women over religious ones. These continuously evolving re-adaptations of female protagonists across cultures and across centuries reflect fictive solutions for real historical concerns about women that not only complement contemporary pastoral and legal reforms but are also unique to medieval German literature.

LC Classification NumberPT195