Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love
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A01=R. Howard Bloch
aesthetics
Author_R. Howard Bloch
Category=JBCC
Category=JBSF
Category=NHDJ
Category=NHTB
chivalry
church fathers
courtly
dowager
economics
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
feminine flesh
feminism
finance
french lay
gender studies
heiress
idealization
infidelity
liberation
literary theory
male indiscretion
medieval
middle ages
misogyny
molestiae nuptiarum
money
monogamy
nonfiction
perfection
poets
possessions
power
purity
romance
romantic love
sexuality
social history
theology
virginity
women
yahwist creation
Product details
- ISBN 9780226059730
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 16 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 15 Jan 1992
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Until now the advent of Western romantic love has been seen as a liberation from--or antidote to--ten centuries of misogyny. In this major contribution to gender studies, R. Howard Bloch demonstrates how similar the ubiquitous antifeminism of medieval times and the romantic idealization of woman actually are. Through analyses of a broad range of patristic and medieval texts, Bloch explores the Christian construction of gender in which the flesh is feminized, the feminine is aestheticized, and aesthetics are condemned in theological terms. Tracing the underlying theme of virginity from the Church Fathers to the courtly poets, Bloch establishes the continuity between early Christian antifeminism and the idealization of woman that emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In conclusion he explains the likely social, economic, and legal causes for the seeming inversion of the terms of misogyny into those of an idealizing tradition of love that exists alongside its earlier avatar until the current era. This startling study will be of great value to students of medieval literature as well as to historians of culture and gender.
