The interior and the abject: uses and abuses of the female in the middle ages |
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Authors: | Maren Lytje |
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Affiliation: | 1. Interdisciplinary Leadership Studies , North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University , Greensboro, NC, USA cewilson@northstate.net |
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Abstract: | In this paper I argue that during the High Middle Ages definitions of the female as distinct from the life led by women played a crucial role in defining social boundaries and solidifying new systems of power. I suggest that there were two female figures that were crucial to these definitions: the mother and the virgin. While the mother image was invoked to describe the internal functioning of the Christian community, the virgin metaphor drew the external boundaries and defined the Christian community's relation to the non‐Christian other. |
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Keywords: | medieval studies women's history psychoanalysis feminist theory religion |
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