Conduct Becoming

Good Wives and Husbands in the Later Middle Ages

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Medieval, Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies, Women&
Cover of the book Conduct Becoming by Glenn D. Burger, University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Glenn D. Burger ISBN: 9780812294484
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc. Publication: September 26, 2017
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press Language: English
Author: Glenn D. Burger
ISBN: 9780812294484
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication: September 26, 2017
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press
Language: English

Conduct Becoming examines a new genre of late medieval writing that focuses on a wife's virtuous conduct and ability of such conduct to alter marital and social relations in the world. Considering a range of texts written for women—the journées chrétiennes or daily guides for Christian living, secular counsel from husbands and fathers such as Le Livre du Chevalier de La Tour Landry and Le Menagier de Paris, and literary narratives such as the Griselda story—Glenn D. Burger argues that, over the course of the long fourteenth century, the "invention" of the good wife in discourses of sacramental marriage, private devotion, and personal conduct reconfigured how female embodiment was understood.

While the period inherits a strongly antifeminist tradition that views the female body as naturally wayward and sensual, late medieval conduct texts for women outline models of feminine virtue that show the good wife as an identity with positive influence in the world. Because these manuals imagine how to be a good wife as necessarily entangled with how to be a good husband, they also move their readers to consider such gendered and sexed identities in relational terms and to embrace a model of self-restraint significantly different from that of clerical celibacy. Conduct literature addressed to the good wife thus reshapes how late medieval audiences thought about the process of becoming a good person more generally. Burger contends that these texts develop and promulgate a view of sex and gender radically different from previous clerical or aristocratic models—one capable of providing the foundations for the modern forms of heterosexuality that begin to emerge more clearly in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Conduct Becoming examines a new genre of late medieval writing that focuses on a wife's virtuous conduct and ability of such conduct to alter marital and social relations in the world. Considering a range of texts written for women—the journées chrétiennes or daily guides for Christian living, secular counsel from husbands and fathers such as Le Livre du Chevalier de La Tour Landry and Le Menagier de Paris, and literary narratives such as the Griselda story—Glenn D. Burger argues that, over the course of the long fourteenth century, the "invention" of the good wife in discourses of sacramental marriage, private devotion, and personal conduct reconfigured how female embodiment was understood.

While the period inherits a strongly antifeminist tradition that views the female body as naturally wayward and sensual, late medieval conduct texts for women outline models of feminine virtue that show the good wife as an identity with positive influence in the world. Because these manuals imagine how to be a good wife as necessarily entangled with how to be a good husband, they also move their readers to consider such gendered and sexed identities in relational terms and to embrace a model of self-restraint significantly different from that of clerical celibacy. Conduct literature addressed to the good wife thus reshapes how late medieval audiences thought about the process of becoming a good person more generally. Burger contends that these texts develop and promulgate a view of sex and gender radically different from previous clerical or aristocratic models—one capable of providing the foundations for the modern forms of heterosexuality that begin to emerge more clearly in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

More books from University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.

Cover of the book A Brief History of Doom by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Why Education Is Useless by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Do Museums Still Need Objects? by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Chechnya by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Tennis Science for Tennis Players by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book The Pleasure Garden, from Vauxhall to Coney Island by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Mad Tuscans and Their Families by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book The Queen's Dumbshows by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Dinah's Daughters by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Building Fortress Europe by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Divine Art, Infernal Machine by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book American Gandhi by Glenn D. Burger
Cover of the book Parades and the Politics of the Street by Glenn D. Burger
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy