"The editors, as well as the organizers of the original symposium, have collected a thought-provoking set of papers for consideration." (M. Herder, in: The Medieval Review, 10.02.07)
Summary
This collection argues that gender must be considered as both an
approach to history, and as a reflection of the deep workings of
the lived, historical past. The sixteen original essays explore
social and cultural expressions of gender in Europe from the
fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. They examine theories and
practices of gender in domestic, religious, and political contexts,
including the Reformation, the convent, the workplace, witchcraft,
the household, literacy, the arts, intellectual spheres, and
cultures of violence and memory. The volume exposes the myriad ways
in which gender was actually experienced, together with the
strategies used by individual men and women to negotiate resilient
patriarchal structures. Overall, the collection opens up new
synergies for thinking about gender as a category of historical
analysis and as a set of experiences central to late medieval and
early modern Europe.