Childhood disability and social integration in the Middle Ages : constructions of impairments in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century canonization processes / by Jenni Kuuliala.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kuuliala, Jenni, author.

Series:

Studies in the history of daily life (800-1600) ; Volume 4.

Studies in the history of daily life (800-1600) ; Volume 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Disabilities--History--13th century.

Disabilities.

Disabilities--History--14th century.

Children with disabilities--History--13th century.

Children with disabilities.

Children with disabilities--History--14th century.

Miracles--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Miracles.

Middle Ages.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 380 pages).

Place of Publication:

Turnhout, Belgium : Brepols, [2016]

Summary:

This volume offers new insights into medieval disability studies by analysing miracle testimonies from canonization processes as sources for the study of medieval attitudes to and understanding of childhood physical impairments: how they were defined, and the social consequences of childhood disability on the family, on the community, and on children themselves. In these texts, laypeople from different social groups carefully described events leading to children's miraculous cures of physical impairments, as well as the conditions themselves. They thus provide an exceptionally rich (yet hitherto unexplored) window into the ways in which medieval society defined, explained, and understood children's impairments.Besides simply describing disabilities and miraculous cures, these testimonies also reveal various aspects of everyday experiences and communal attitudes towards impaired children. The few testimonies by the children themselves offer fascinating insights into personal experiences of physical disability and how disability affected a child's socialization and the formation of identity.This study thus aims to tease apart the often-complex ways in which medieval society both viewed physical differences and how it chose to (re)construct these differences in the discourse of the miraculous, as well as in everyday life.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-372) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

2-503-55833-X