| Paper 1306-a | Virtuous Affection and the Threat of Sin: Male and Female Conceptions of Honourable Love in the Epistolae Duorum Amantium and Other Late 11th- and Early 12th-Century Latin Love Letters
(Language: English)
Diana Marie Jeske, School of Philosophical, Historical & International Studies, Monash University, Victoria
Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Latin, Philosophy, Social History |
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| Paper 1306-c | 'So hy contemplacyon and so meche dalyawns of owr Lord': Direct Confession in Late Medieval Sermons and The Book of Margery Kempe
(Language: English)
Robert Stanton, Department of English, Boston College, Massachusetts
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Lay Piety, Religious Life, Sermons and Preaching |
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| Abstract | Paper -a:
In the later 11th and early 12th centuries women began to participate in a form of amorous literary discourse that had, until then, generally been exclusively the province of men. This paper examines how the men and women who exchanged love letters in this period, such as the authors of the Epistolae Duroum Amantium, defined their relationships and conceived of the concepts of honourable love and virtuous friendship. While the female authors are eager to combine ideas of exalted friendship with romantic love their male correspondents perceive sinful, shameful threats in these relationships. This fear of sin prevents the men from conceiving of these relationships as they might other friendships with close male companions.
Paper -b:
In medieval western Europe, woman's voice lyrics, sometimes framed by or in dialogue with a male voice, follow certain very specific conventions. This paper will look at the pastourelle and the complaint of the seduced girl, both genres drawing on a clash of social positions as well as genders. In both genres, a complacent male uses his social advantages to get the better of a lower-class girl - with varying success. The argument will be made that, when the poems are compared with Romance and German analogues, the English context and language appear to have a levelling effect on the depiction of social convention and social hierarchy.
Paper -c:
The Book of Margery Kempe (1430s) centres on an idiosyncratic, eroticized relationship with God. Though avoiding the heretical idea that priestly confession was unnecessary, Margery saved her most vivid and personal confessions for the (often eroticized) second person of Jesus. This paper traces attitudes to confession in late-medieval sermons and Margery's transformation of orthodox theology into an individualized expression of sanctity, thereby reclaiming some of the personal agency lost during late-medieval clericalizing reforms. I conclude by speculating about how we can use this evidence to place Margery on a spectrum between produced Christian subject and unique and communicative individual agent.
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