1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910784601403321

Autore

Burgwinkle William E. <1951->

Titolo

Sodomy, masculinity, and law in medieval literature : France and England, 1050-1230 / / William E. Burgwinkle [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2004

ISBN

1-107-15113-9

1-280-54091-5

0-511-21501-0

0-511-21680-7

0-511-21143-0

0-511-31550-3

0-511-48473-9

0-511-21320-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 298 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; ; 51

Disciplina

820.9384

Soggetti

Homosexuality in literature

Sodomy in literature

Masculinity in literature

Literature, Medieval - History and criticism

Homosexuality - Europe - History

Sodomy - Europe - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-291) and index.

Nota di contenuto

; Introduction -- ; Part. I. Locating sodomy -- Locating sodomy -- Imagining sodomy -- ; Part. II. Confronting sodomy -- Making Perceval: double-binding and siéges périlleux -- Queering the Celts: Marie de France and the men who don't marry -- Writing the self: Alain de Lille's De planctu naturae -- ; Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

William Burgwinkle surveys poetry and letters, histories and literary fiction - including Grail romances - to offer a historical survey of attitudes towards same-sex love during the centuries that gave us the Plantagenet court of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, courtly love, and Arthurian lore. Burgwinkle illustrates how 'sodomy' becomes a



problematic feature of narratives of romance and knighthood. Most texts of the period denounce sodomy and use accusations of sodomitical practice as a way of maintaining a sacrificial climate in which masculine identity is set in opposition to the stigmatised other, for example the foreign, the feminine, and the heretical. What emerges from these readings, however, is that even the most homophobic, masculinist and normative texts of the period demonstrate an inability or unwillingness to separate the sodomitical from the orthodox. These blurred boundaries allow readers to glimpse alternative, even homoerotic, readings.