Same-sex sexuality in later medieval English culture / Tom Linkinen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Linkinen, Tom, author.

Series:

Crossing boundaries: Turku medieval and early modern studies.

Crossing boundaries.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Homosexuality--History.

Homosexuality.

Homosexuality--England--15th century.

Homosexuality--England--History--14th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (334 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This volume investigates the state of same-sex relations in later medieval England, drawing on a remarkably rich array of primary sources from the period that include legal documents, artworks, theological treatises, and poetry. Tom Linkinen uses those sources to build a framework of medieval condemnations of same-sex intimacy and desire and then shows how same-sex sexuality reflected-and was inflected by-gender hierarchies, approaches to crime, and the conspicuous silence on the matter in the legal systems of the period.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Introduction

1. In search of same-sex sexuality and later medieval English culture

2 Primary sources: Discussing the versatile past

3. Secondary sources: Discussing medieval sexuality

I. Framing condemnations: Sodomy, sin against nature, and crime

1. Judgement of sodomy

2. Sin against nature and fallen flesh

3. Disturbing gender boundaries

4. A crime lacking law

II. Silencing the unmentionable vice

1. Silence around same-sex sexuality

2. Repeated silencing as shared knowledge

III. Stigmatising with same-sex sexuality

1. The two kings and their rumoured lovers

2. Sodomitical religious opponents

3. Accumulating accusations

IV. Sharing disgust and fear

1. "Stinking deed" and "spiteful filth"

2. Fear of sin against nature in one's nature

3. Sharing nightmares of sin against nature

4. Placing same-sex sexuality out of this world

V. Sharing laughter

1. Laughing at same-sex sexuality

2. Chaucer's Pardoner, "geldyng or a mare" and more

VI. Framing possibilities: Silences, friendships, deepest love

1. Possibilities behind silence and confusion

2. Closest friends

3. Deepest love

Conclusions

1. From stinking deeds to deepest love

2. Closing with queer possibilities

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Index

List of figures

Figure 1: Punishment for sodomy carved in stone, from the left, Lincoln Cathedral, a reconstruction of a twelfth-century stone frieze

Figure 2: Punishment for sodomy carved in stone, from the right, Lincoln Cathedral, a reconstruction of a twelfth-century stone frieze

Figure 3: Tutivillus the devil and two women gossiping in a church, Beverley Minster, Beverley, North Yorkshire, fourteenth century.

Figure 4: A joined tombstone of Sir John Clanvowe and Sir William Neville, Archaeological Museum of Istanbul

Figure 5: "A tomb slab of an English couple," Archaeological Museum of Istanbul

Figure 6: A closer look at two helmets face-to-face above, and two coats of arms with shared heraldry below, Archaeological Museum of Istanbul.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 14 Dec 2020).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-003-70326-7

1-04-079927-2

90-485-2286-2

9781003703266

OCLC:

911195801