Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval EuropeIn this book, the author explores medieval society's fascination with the cross-dressed woman, examining a wide variety of religious, literary, and historical sources that recordedinterpretations of sartorial attempts to overcome gender hierarchy and also illustrate, mainly through the device of inversion, a remarkabley sustained desire to examine an reexamine the nature of social gender identities. Included in the study are investigations of the symbolism underlying the lives of popular transvestite saints; the confluence of hagiography and biography in the historical case of Hildegund von Schonau; the juridical and theological arguments for and against the transvestism of Jeanne d'Arc; the legend of the female pope; the phenomenon of the abandoned wife in male disguise; and the characterization of female protagonists in courtly romance who experience a crisis of sexual identity. |
Other editions - View all
Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe Valerie R. Hotchkiss Limited preview - 2012 |
Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe Valerie R. Hotchkiss Limited preview - 1996 |
Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe Valerie R. Hotchkiss No preview available - 1996 |
Common terms and phrases
AASS abbot accounts androgyny authors beauty biological Blanchandine Blancheflor Boccaccio Caesarius century characters Christian Christine de Pizan church Cistercian claims courtly cross dressing cultural David Blondel death disguise literature disguised saints disguised women divine edited Engelhard Engelhard von Langheim Eugenia Euphrosyne example father female body female cross dressing female monks female pope female transvestism feminine fictional gender inversion Glaphyra Grisandole Gürtel habitu hagiographic heroine heroism Hildegund historical holy husband Ibid identity Iphis Jean Gerson Jeanne d'Arc Jeanne's Jehane Jehane's Joan Jutta knight Kudrun Langheim later legend Legenda aurea lines literary lives male clothing male disguise male dress Marina masculine medieval literature men's clothing Merlin Middle Ages monastery motif narrator nature Nonetheless papess Paris Pelagia Pope Joan quod revealed Ritter Robiert role Roman de Silence romance Schernberg Schönau sexual Silence's social society story studies texts Thecla Theodora transgression translated transvestism transvestite saints virginity virili wife woman Zinevra