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This volume investigates the state of same-sex relations in later medieval England, drawing on a remarkably rich array of primary sources from the period that include legal documents, artworks, theological treatises, and poetry. Tom Linkinen uses those sources to build a framework of medieval condemnations of same-sex intimacy and desire and then shows how same-sex sexuality reflected"and was inflected by"gender hierarchies, approaches to crime, and the conspicuous silence on the matter in the legal systems of the period.
List of contents
The manuscript includes introduction, conclusion, and six main chapters. [-][-]The first chapter focuses on the framework of concepts of medieval condemnations against same-sex sexual acts and desire, those of sodomy, sin against nature, corporeal imaginary in relation to unnatural sin, same-sex acts and desires in relation to gender-hierarchies and, finally, crime and the lack in dealing with the matter in later medieval English legal systems.[-][-]The second chapter concerns silence and the medieval cultural phenomenon of unmentionable vice, based on Middle English poetry, theological treatises, and vernacular manuals for priests.[-][-]Defamations and accusations in later medieval English culture, in both politics and rhetoric, are scrutinized in the third chapter of the study. Primary sources here vary from chronicles to theological treatises and public accusations.[-][-]The fourth chapter elaborates expressions and emotions of disgust and fear in facing and expressing the matter in a variety of textual (and also pictorial) material. The latter part of the chapter approaches the themes of disgust and fear evolving into widely shared fantasies of exclusion, having their own particular logic to situate the more explicit narrations and the few detailed pictorial representations exclusively into apocalyptic imaginary and to descriptive narratives of hell. Primary sources used here are varied, yet Middle English Poetry appears to be the more explicit and useful group of sources useful in especially in questions of expressing fear and horror.[-][-]Laughter as a yet another method of condemning is the focus of the fifth chapter, again based on various textual and some pictorial material. Par condemning, also the apparent fascination towards satire, ridicule and mocking in facing same-sex sexual matters are analyzed in this chapter.[-][-]The sixth and the final main chapter approach the other than condemning frames that later medieval writers, readers and audiences possibly had in dealing with same-sex sexual-related issues. Those include the possibilities behind silences, traditions of sword brothers and that of spiritual brothers, and the non-condemnatory possibilities in relation with the topos of praising the love of friends as the deepest love. Primary material here includes chronicles, poetry, romances and devotional texts of the time. [-][-]Also, the latter part of the conclusion touches on queer-theory and the queer-theoretical possibilities from the point of view of 'queering', 'queer moment', and 'queer possibilities'.[-]
About the author
Dr Tom Linkinen is a cultural historian in the department of Cultural history, University of Turku, a founder member of the Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and the chairperson of the Queer-studies Society of Finland.
