Dark age bodies : gender and monastic practice in the early medieval West / Lynda L. Coon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coon, Lynda L.

Series:

Middle Ages series.

The Middle Ages series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human body--Religious aspects--Catholic Church--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Human body.

Men (Christian theology)--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Men (Christian theology).

Monastic and religious life--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Monastic and religious life.

Benedict, Saint, Abbot of Monte Cassino. Regula.

Benedict.

Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz, 784?-856.

Rabanus Maurus.

Physical Description:

xi, 390 p. : ill. (some col.).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Dark Age Bodies Lynda L. Coon reconstructs the gender ideology of monastic masculinity through an investigation of early medieval readings of the body. Focusing on the Carolingian era, Coon evaluates the ritual and liturgical performances of monastic bodies within the imaginative landscapes of same-sex ascetic communities in northern Europe. She demonstrates how the priestly body plays a significant role in shaping major aspects of Carolingian history, such as the revival of classicism, movements for clerical reform, and church-state relations. In the political realm, Carolingian churchmen consistently exploited monastic constructions of gender to assert the power of the monastery. Stressing the superior qualities of priestly virility, clerical elites forged a model of gender that sought to feminize lay male bodies through a variety of textual, ritual, and spatial means. Focusing on three central themes-the body, architecture, and ritual practice-the book draws from a variety of visual and textual materials, including poetry, grammar manuals, rhetorical treatises, biblical exegesis, monastic regulations, hagiographies, illuminated manuscripts, building plans, and cloister design. Interdisciplinary in scope, Dark Age Bodies brings together scholarship in architectural history and cultural anthropology with recent works in religion, classics, and gender to present a significant reconsideration of Carolingian culture.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Introduction. Dark Age Bodies

Chapter 1. ''Hrabanus Is My Name''

Chapter 2. A Carolingian Aesthetic of Bricolage

Chapter 3. Gendering the Benedictine Rule

Chapter 4. Carolingian Practices of the Rule

Chapter 5. Inscribing the Rule onto Carolingian Sacred Space

Chapter 6. Gendering the Plan of Saint Gall

Chapter 7. Foursquare Power

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [341]-373) and index.

ISBN:

9781283897464

1283897466

9780812204919

0812204913

OCLC:

794700589