Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 7650
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Salih , Sarah.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: When is a Bosom Not a Bosom? Problems with "Erotic Mysticism" [The author addresses the issue of eroticism in medieval religion, in female mystics' texts, and in two saints' lives. Salih cogently analyzes current scholarly thinking, including differing interpretations from Caroline Walker Bynum and Nancy Partner. In short passages from the lives of Gilbert of Sempringham and Christina of Markyate, Salih points to instances in which the sexual and the religious were not discrete and separate. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: Medieval Virginities.  Edited by Anke Bernau, Ruth Evans, and Sarah Salih.  Religion and Culture in the Middle Ages series. University of Wales Press; University of Toronto Press, 2003.  Pages 14 - 32. Abridged version published in Medieval Literature: Criticism and Debates. Edited by Holly A. Crocker and D. Vance Smith. Routledge, 2014. Pages 162-179.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Christina of Markyate, Recluse Eroticism Gilbert of Sempringham, Saint Hagiography Historiography Mystics Sexuality Virginity Women in Religion
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  • Geographic Area: General
  • Century: General
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  • Author's Affiliation: University of East Anglia, Norwich
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2003.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0802089607