Home > Feminism > Women and Women's Writings from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages - Corinne Saunders (Essay Date 2001)
Women and Women's Writings from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages - Corinne Saunders (Essay Date 2001)
CORINNE SAUNDERS (ESSAY DATE 2001)
SOURCE: Saunders, Corinne. “Introduction: The Contemporary and the Contemporaneous.” In Rape and Ravishment in the Literature of Medieval England, pp. 1-31. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2001.
In the following excerpt, Saunders details medieval perceptions of gender and the female body as they relate to the subject of rape.
Differences between medieval and contemporary perspectives on rape are . . . rooted in the differences between past and present notions of gender and sexuality. The ideas current in the medieval period were themselves fluid, varying between discourses and often reflecting doubts and uncertainties, but the interplay between ideas and their various developments created a dialogue whose values and perspectives contrast quite dramatically with those of the modern period. Not only does this dialogue provide an essential context for medieval writing on...
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Primary Sources
- Pan Chao (Poem Date C. 1St Century)
- Yu Xuanji (Lyric Date C. 9Th Century)
- Three Beautiful Sisters, Orphaned Young
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- Marie De France (Poem Date C. 12Th Century)
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