Publication Date: 2005
Pages: 208
In recent times postmodernism has influenced all areas of the humanistic disciplines, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about the meaning of historical evidence and our ability to read and interpret it. Medievalists have been notably present in these debates, bringing 'the linguistic turn' to medieval sources and renewing a traditional field with non-traditional subjects and approaches. Writing Medieval History surveys those aspects of theory and its related new subject matters that have become part of the mainstream discipline of medieval history.
This book is organised around three major themes: the self or recognizing people in premodern society; literary techniques for reading historical texts; and historicizing sexuality and gender. Within each section are essays on subjects such as the social self, use of psychoanalysis, and sex and gender in medieval life. This text clearly articulates concepts, defines critical vocabulary and demonstrates how the theory is applied in practice.
Table of Contents
- Notes on contributors
- General editors’ preface
- Preface
- Recognizing people in medieval society
- Social Selves in Medieval England
- Guide to further reading
- Biography and Autobiography in the Middle Ages
- Guide to further reading
- The Hidden Self
- Guide to further reading
- Literary techniques for reading historical texts
- Literary Criticism and the Evidence for History
- Guide to further reading
- Finding the Meaning of Form
- Guide to further reading
- Functions of Fiction in Historical Writing
- Guide to further reading
- Historicizing sex and gender
- Historicizing Sex, Sexualizing History
- Guide to further reading
- Gender and Femininity in Medieval England
- Guide to further reading
- Masculine Identity in Late Medieval English Society and Culture
- Guide to further reading