Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


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1. Record Number: 10518
Author(s): Dalarun, Jacques.
Contributor(s):
Title : The Clerical Gaze [The author examines misogyny in clerical literature through the verse and prose writings of three prelates of twelfth century France: Marbod of Rennes, Hildebert of Lavardin, and Geoffrey of Vendome. In the eleventh century, churchmen thought about women in terms of an antithesis between Eve (who represented the sinful and deceptive nature of women) and the Virgin Mary (who represented the unattainable ideal of the virtuous woman). During the twelfth century, the distinctions between Eve and Mary became even starker, and Mary Magdalene (the repentant prostitute) became a figure who took a position between the two extremes. For male clerics as well as female worshippers, Mary Magdalene represented a way for the sinful woman to gain redemption. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
Source: A History of Women in the West. Volume 2: Silences of the Middle Ages.   Edited by Christiane Klapisch-Zuber .   Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992.  Pages 15 - 42.
Year of Publication: 1992.