Sexuality Sociality and Cosmology in Medieval Literary Texts New Middle Ages

About this book

"For many medieval authors, sexuality was the ultimate expression of embodiment. Sexuality could be a medium for human communication with the divine, but it could also be a barrier when not conceptualized or practiced correctly. Broad in scope, this collection shows several operating models of body and cosmos. Exploring the relation between sexuality and cosmology in a variety of literary texts from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, the essays reveal that medieval authors, whether lay or religious, Christian or Jewish, were grappling with the same sets of questions about sexuality as people are today"--Provided by publisher. "This collection seeks to explore the relation between sexuality and cosmology in a variety of literary texts from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries. The range is wide and yet it shows that medieval authors, whether lay or religious, Christian or Jewish, are grappling with the same sets of questions about sexuality: How does it conform to or reproduce world order? How might it disrupt that order? Does it bring people closer to the divine, or does it distance them? For all of the authors, the answers lie in their models of body and cosmos and how they work together"--Provided by publisher.