Medieval obscenities
By: edited by Nicola McDonald.
Contributors: McDonald, Nicola.; University of York. Centre for Medieval Studies.
Publisher: York Medieval; York Medieval Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Woodbridge
Language: eng
Number of pages: 210
ISBN-13: 9781903153185
Subjects: Obscenity (Law); Obscene gestures -- History -- To 1500; Words, Obscene -- History -- To 1500; Civilization, Medieval
Description: "Medieval Obscenities examines the complex and contentious role of the obscene - what is offensive, indecent or morally repugnant - in medieval culture from late antiquity through to the end of the middle ages in western Europe. Its approach is multidisciplinary, its methodologies divergent and it seeks to formulate questions and stimulate debate." "The essays examine topics as diverse as Norse defecation taboos, the Anglo-Saxon sexual idiom, sheela-na-gigs, impotence in the church courts, bare ecclesiastical bottoms, rude sounds and dirty words, as well as the modern reception and representation of the medieval obscene. The volume demonstrates not only the vitality of medieval obscenity, but its centrality to our understanding of medieval life."--Jacket.
Notes: "York Medieval Press is published by the University of York's Centre for Medieval Studies in association with Boydell & Brewer" -- prelims.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction / Nicola McDonald; title: Dr. Witkowski's anus: French doctors, German homosexuals and the obscene in Medieval church art / Michael Camille; title: The Exeter book riddles and the place of sexual idiom in Old English literature / Glenn Davis; title: Representing obscene sound / Emma Dillon; title: Obscene hermeneutics in Troubadour lyric / Simon Gaunt; title: John Shathelok's dick: voyeurism and 'pornography' in late Medieval England / Jeremy Goldberg; title: Irish Sheela-na-gigs and related figures with reference to the collections of the National Museum of Ireland / Eamonn Kelly; title: Diet, defecation and the devil: disgust and the pagan past / Carolyne Larrington; title: From Coilles to Bel Chose: discourses of obscenity in Jean de Meun and Chaucer / Alastair Minnis; title: Latin literature, Christianity and obscenity in the later Roman West / Danuta Shanzer.