Practising shame : female honour in later medieval England / Mary C. Flannery.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Flannery, Mary Catherine, author.

Series:

Manchester medieval literature and culture ; 29.

Manchester medieval literature and culture ; 29

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism.

English literature.

Honor in literature.

Shame in literature.

Women and literature--England--History--To 1500.

Women and literature.

Shame.

History.

Honor.

England.

Women--England--History--Middle Ages, 500-1500.

Women.

Honor--England--History--To 1500.

Shame--England--History--To 1500.

Women--Middle Ages.

English literature--Middle English.

Genre:

History.

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xiii, 213 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2020.

Summary:

Practicing shame' investigates how the literature of medieval England encouraged women to safeguard their honour by cultivating hypervigilance against the possibility of sexual shame. A combination of inward reflection and outward comportment, this practice of 'shamefastness' was believed to reinforce women's chastity of mind and body, and to communicate that chastity to others by means of conventional gestures. The book uncovers the paradoxes and complications that emerged from these emotional practices, as well as the ways in which they were satirised and reappropriated by male authors. Working at the intersection of literary studies, gender studies and the history of emotions, it transforms our understanding of the ethical construction of femininity in the past and provides a new framework for thinking about honourable womanhood now and in the years to come.

Notes:

Includes bibliographic references and index.

ISBN:

1526110067

9781526110060

OCLC:

1090370234