Women and Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and the Limits of Epic Masculinity

307 Pages·2007·29.959 MB·English

by  Sara S. Poor, Jana K. Schulman (eds.)

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WOMEN AND MEDIEVAL EPIC
GENDER, GENRE, AND THE LIMITS OF
EPIC MASCULINITY
Edited by
Sara S. Poor and ]ana K. Schulman
*
WOMEN AND MEDIEVAL EPIC
© Sara S. Poor and jan a K. Schulman, 2007.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-1-4039-6602-5
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
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ISBN 978-1-349-73309-5 ISBN 978-1-137-06637-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-06637-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Women and medieval epic: gender, genre, and the limits of epic
masculinity I edited by Sara S. Poor and jana K. Schulman.
p. cm.-(The New Middle Ages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Poetry, Medieval-History and criticism. 2. Epic poetry,
European-History and criticism. 3. Women in literature.
4. Masculinity in literature. I. Poor, Sara S. 1963-11. Schulman, jana K.
1959-111. Series.
PN690.W66W66 2007
809.1 '3209940902-dc22 2006045413
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: january 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to digital printing in 2007.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments lX
Notes on Contributors Xl
Introduction 1
Sara S. Poor and ]ana K. Schulman
1 Winning Women in Two Middle English Alexander Poems 15
Christine Chism
2 Surprisingly Historical Women in the Old French
Cmsade Cycle 41
Sarah-Grace Heller
3 Women in the Shalmameh: Exotics and Natives, Rebellious
Legends, and Dutiful Histories 67
Dick Davis
4 Women Characters and the Limits of Patriarchy
in the Poema De Mio Cid and Mocedades de Rodrigo 91
Thomas Caldin
5 What Hrotsvit Did to Virgil: Expanding the Boundaries of
the Classical Epic in Tenth-Century Ottonian Saxony 115
Kate Olson
6 All About Eve: Memory and Re-Collection in Junius 11 's
Epic Poems Genesis and Christ and Satan 137
Lisabeth C. Buchelt
7 Ethical Acts and Annihilation: Feminine Heroics
in Girart de Roussillon 159
William Burgwinkle
8 Caught between Worlds: Gendering the Maiden Warrior
in Old Norse 183
William Layher
V111 CONTENTS
9 "A Guest is in the Hall": Women, Feasts, and Violence in
Icelandic Epic 209
]ana K. Schulman
10 Monstrous Mates: The Leading Ladies of the Nibelungcnlied
and Viilsun.s<a sa.s<a 235
Kaarcn Grimstad ami Ray M. Wakiftcld
11 Perfonnative Emotion and the Politics of Gender in the
NibclunJ<enlicd 253
Kathryn Starkey
Biblio.s<raphy 273
Index 293
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As is usual with a project such as this, we owe thanks to a number of people
for their help in putting this volume together. The idea for the volume
arose from a set of panels we organized at Kalamazoo in 2002 and we are
grateful to those panel participants for inspiring us to go forward with the
book project. We also want to acknowledge all our contributors for their
excellent essays from which we both learned a great deal and especially for
their patience and diligence in responding to our various queries during the
editing process. A special thanks goes to Christine Chism and Lisabeth C.
Buchelt for submitting chapters on short notice. We owe further debts of
gratitude to the anonymous reader, whose feedback improved the volume
in important ways; to William Layher and Kathleen Davis for sharing their
expertise in their respective fields (Gernun and Old English) as we assem
bled a core bibliography for the theory of epic; to Claire M. Waters for her
helpful comments on the introduction; and to Donna and Gene Best, the
proprietors of the Red Brick Inn in Nicklesville, Pennsylvania for the
lovely and hospitable surroundings where we met to put the final manu
script together. Finally, we thank Bonnie Wheeler and the editing staff at
Palgrave for their support of and work on the project throughout.