IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 214: Of Monks and Men: Narratives of Masculinity, I

Monday 9 July 2012, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	School of Humanities, University of Lincoln / Division of History, University of Huddersfield
Organiser:	Joanna Huntington, School of History & Heritage, University of Lincoln
Moderator/Chair:	Patricia Cullum, Department of History, University of Huddersfield
Paper 214-a	Something for the Ladies?: Audience and Gender in William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum (Language: English) Joanna Huntington, School of History & Heritage, University of Lincoln Index terms: Gender Studies, Mentalities, Monasticism, Sexuality
Paper 214-b	Heavenly Desire and Holy Chastity: Masculinity and Sanctity in 12th-Century Saints' Lives (Language: English) Eilidh Harris, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Monasticism, Religious Life
Paper 214-c	'He weryd the hard heyre knett with knottis lyke a nett': Representations of High Medieval Male Sanctity in Late Medieval England (Language: English) Katherine J. Lewis, Department of History, University of Huddersfield Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Historiography - Medieval, Sexuality
Abstract	Two linked sessions examine the construction of masculinities in different types of medieval narrative. The papers also open up important questions concerning audience and the functions of narrative sources – which are still often either treated at face value, as transparent windows into What Really Happened, or dismissed as biased or fanciful. Through consideration of chronicles and hagiography, the speakers address treatments of sexuality, celibacy, episcopal cultures, the interrelationships between laici and clerici, and royal fatherhood (or lack thereof).