Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 2879
  • Author(s)/Creator(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.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Clergy Eve (Biblical Figure) in Literature Geoffrey of Vendome, Abbot of La Trinite Hagiography Hildebert of Lavardin, Archbishop of Tours Literature- Prose Literature- Verse Marbod, Bishop of Rennes Mary Magdalene, Saint Mary, Virgin, Saint in Literature
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: France
  • Century: 11-12
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  • Author's Affiliation: Ecole Française de Rome
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1992.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0674403711