E-Book Overview
Violence in Courtly Medieval Culture explores the dark side of courtly literature. Although courtly literature is often associated with a chivalrous and idyllic life, the essays in this collection demonstrate that the quest for love in the world of medieval courtly literature was underpinned by violence - lovers were rejected, mistrust ruled, rape was a rampant problem, and marriage was often characterized by brutality. The collection focuses on the prevalence of what is now known as 'domestic violence' in the world of courtly literature. Many female writers addressed the problematic correlation of love with violence, specifically the physical violence that women faced at the hands of men, as witnessed by the twelfth-century troubairitz poetry, thirteenth and fourteenth century women's trouvere poetry, and by fifteenth and sixteenth century German women's love poetry. Not surprisingly, as medieval law books, romances and short narratives demonstrate, domestic violence was not at all unknown in the Middle Ages and represented a severe problem, which women could fight with only very limited resources because biblical teachings assigned absolute power to the father/husband
E-Book Content
Violence in Medieval Courtly Literature ROUTLEDGE MEDIEVAL CASEBOOKS Christopher Kleinhenz and Marcia Colish, Series Editors The Chester Mystery Cycle A Casebook edited by Kevin J.Harty Medieval Numerology A Book of Essays edited by Robert L.Surles Manuscript Sources of Medieval Medicine A Book of Essays edited by Margaret R.Schleissner Saint Augustine the Bishop A Book of Essays edited by Fannie LeMoine and Christopher Kleinhenz Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam A Book of Essays edited by John Victor Tolan Sovereign Lady Essays on Women in Middle English Literature edited by Muriel Whitaker Food in the Middle Ages A Book of Essays edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson Animals in the Middle Ages A Book of Essays edited by Nona C.Flores Sanctity and Motherhood Essays on Holy Mothers in the Middle Ages edited by Annecke B.Mulder-Bakker Medieval Fatnily Roles A Book of Essays edited by Cathy Jorgensen Itnyre The Mabinogi A Book of Essays edited by C.W.Sullivan III The Pilgrimmage to Compostela in the Middle Ages A Book of Essays edited by Maryjane Dunn and Linda Kay Davidson Medieval Liturgy A Book of Essays edited by Lizette Larson-Miller Medieval Purity and Piety Essays on Medieval Clerical Celibacy and Religious Reform edited by Michael Frassetto Hildegard of Bingen A Book of Essays edited by Maud Burnett Mclnerney Julian of Norwich A Book of Essays edited by Sandra J.McEntire The Mark of the Beast The Medieval Bestiary in Art, Life, and Literature edited by Debra Hassig The Book and the Magic of Reading in the Middle Ages edited by Albert Classen Conflicted Identities and Multiple Masculinities Men in the Medieval West edited by Jacqueline Murray Imagining Heaven in the Middle Ages A Book of Essays edited by Jan Swango Emerson and Hugh Feiss, O.S.B. Anna Komnene and Her Times edited by Thalia Gouma-Peterson William Langland’s Piers Plowman A Book of Essays edited by Kathleen M.Hewett-Smith The Poetic Edda Essays on Old Norse Mythology edited by Paul Acker and Carolyne Larrington Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe A Book of Essays edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson The Italian Novella edited by Gloria Allaire Christine de Pizan A Casebook edited by Barbara K.Altmann and Deborah L.McGrady Violence in Medieval Courtly Literature A Casebook edited by Albrecht Classen Violence in Medieval Courtly Literature A Casebook Edited by Albrecht Classen ROUTLEDGE NEW YORK & LONDON Published in 2004 by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Published in Great Britain by Routledge 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Copyright © 2004 by Routledge Routledge is an imprint of the Tayl