Title: Between medieval men : male friendship and desire in early medieval English literature /
Authors: Clark, David, 1977-
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 2009
Subjects: English literature History and criticism; Male friendship in literature.; Desire in literature.; Eroticism in literature.; Men in literature
Abstract: "Between Medieval Men argues for the importance of synoptically examining the whole range of same-sex relations in the Anglo-Saxon period, revisiting well-known texts and issues (as well as material often considered marginal) from a radically different perspective. The introductory chapters first lay out the premises underlying the book and its critical context, then emphasise the need to avoid modern cultural assumptions about both male-female and male-male relationships, and underline the paramount place of homosocial bonds in Old English literature. Part II then investigates the construction of and attitudes to same-sex acts and identities in ethnographic, penitential, and theological texts, ranging widely throughout the Old English corpus and drawing on Classical, Medieval Latin, and Old Norse material. Part III expands the focus to homosocial bonds in Old English literature in order to explore the range of associations for same-sex intimacy and their representation in literary texts such as Genesis A, Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, The Dream of the Rood, The Phoenix, and Aefric's Lives of Saints."--Jacket.
Contents: A fine romance? Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wife's Lament, and The Husband's Message -- Germanic pederasty: the evidence of the classical ethnographers -- Attitudes to same-sex activity in Anglo-Saxon England: earg, the Penitentials, and OE bœdling -- The changing face of Sodom, part I: the Latin tradition -- The changing face of Sodom, part II: the vernacular tradition -- Destructive desire: sexual themes and same-sex relations in Genesis A -- Heroic desire? Male relations in Beowulf, The battle of Maldon, and The dream of the rood -- Monastic sexuality and same-sex procreation in The phoenix -- Saintly desire? Same-sex relations in Ælfric's Lives of saints -- Unorthodox desire: the anonymous Life of Europhrosyne and the Colloquies of Ælfric Bata