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hrjSession 481 Latin Homoerotics in the Central Middle Ages (ca. 950–1250)
Sponsor: Mediaevalia: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Medieval Studies Worldwide Organizer: Tina Chronopoulos, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies,
Binghamton Univ. Presider: Tina Chronopoulos
Female Homoeroticism in Hrotsvit of Gandersheim and Elizabeth of Schönau
Colleen Butler, Centre for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Toronto
Looking at when we can identify historic contexts as homoerotic and on what basis. 10th c. Hrotsvit, 12th c. Elizabeth. Took different approaches to their writings (Hrotsvit more classical and learned, Elizabeth more visionary and mystic) but both focused on virginity and the image of bride of Christ. Virginity was not the absense of erotic desire but an identity based on channeling erotic desire to God. This identity subverts compulsory heterosexuality and binary sex/gender. By removing themselves from the heterosexual marriage economy, nuns step outside male control and create the potential -- within a homosocial environment -- for homosexual desire. When two women exist in a parallel erotic relationship to the male Christ, there is the potential for the male figure to be backgrounded, leaving an erotically charged female-female relationship. [I'm leaving out a great deal of theoretical background and terminology because I can't keep up with it.] Hrotsvit's writings include significant material covering the "bride of Christ" motif in sexually charged language. Despite the superficial heterosexual framing ("bride of Christ"), the envisioning of a multiplicity of simultaneous brides further destabilizes the heterosexual model by bringing in a sort of polygamy but where the physicality is all female, that is, the emphasis is not on the one-to-one relationship to Christ, but on becoming part of an all-female community (of "brides of Christ"). Classical texts on the BoC motif that focused on the one-to-one aspect are rewritten to emphasize the community aspects.
Elizabeth takes this framing further in a vision where she sees Christ appearing as a woman. Evidently her advisors suggested that she want to rethink this vision and she answers with a following vision where she questions St. John on this matter, who confirms the correct reading (to her) of her original vision. Her writings in general feature struggles with erotic temptation and the conteis suggestive. Elizabeth's visions focus primarily on the Virgin with great emotional intensity and the preceding is one of the few featuring Christ.
Loving Men Then and Now: Reading Juvenal in the Twelfth-Century Classroom
Emily Blakelock, Centre for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Toronto
Juvenal (2nd century) comments regularly on the immorality of men's same-sex desire, especially as a part of corrupt urban culture, but 12th c. commentaries on Juvenal reveal more regarding 12th c. attitudes. 12th c. teaching styles involved a close line-by-line reading and explanation of the texts. These commentaries were part of developing a curriculum of ethics and the use of Juvenal's works allowed discussion of his topics in an approved context that could then be applied to contemporary life. There is a regular theme of the hypocriticality of philosophers who teach against sodomy but practice it in secret. This is particularly associated in the commentary with urban schools which are seen as hotbeds of vice, where young men are considered particularly vulnerable to being corrupted by older, experienced men. But the use of Juvenal and these commentaries to warn and instruct students against these activities also gives them ideas (and a vocabulary to use) that then show up in poetry in more positive contexts. [The rest covers a detailed exploration of some of these poems, which turn the condemnatory attitudes of Juvenal into something more sympathetic.]
Toward a History of the Reception of Homosexuality in Commentaries: The Case of the Scholia in Ibin
Pierluigi Gatti, Columbia Univ.
Focuses on schools and their texts as a locus of creating and communicating an understanding of sexuality in the Middle Ages. Commentaries as "cultural filter" for understanding the texts. Primary texts here: Virgil and Cicero. Cicero uses the accusation of effeminacy and passive homosexuality as an attack on his enemies in order to gain rhetorical advantage in public. While Cicero's language may be allusive the commentaries provide a more explicit and unambiguous explanation of the acts/nature in question, but also explicitly discuss Cicero's rhetorical purpose in making the claims. Vergil's topics cover only male homosexuality [I may have missed a reference to Cicero discussing female?] but while Vergil's language may be equivocal in casting judgment on his topics, the commentaries frame the subjects clearly negatively. [I'm having a bit of trouble following the paper due to accent and the fact that the handout has only the Latin texts, which takes me a little attention to work through.] Something something about understanding Vergil's subjects as being characteristically Greek, i.e., sexually suspect. We now come to an assertion that -- rather than being didactic literature aimed at students for practical instruction, these commentaries are part of an intellectual discussion within the closed learned community. [I'm afraid I rather zoned out on this one.]
Because so many of my readers are textile geeks, the third DISTAFF session, which I skipped in favor of the above, was:
Session 486 Dress and Textiles III: Analyzing Artifacts
Sponsor: DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion)
Organizer: Robin Netherton, DISTAFF
Presider: Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Univ. of Manchester
Yet Another Look at the Bayeux Tapestry: Some Thoughts from a Spinner’s and Weaver’s Perspective
Sarah Delinger, Independent Scholar
The Lübeck Wappenrock: Distinctive Style in Fifteenth-Century German Fabric Armor
Jessica Finley, Independent Scholar
Coping with Connoisseurship: Issues in Attribution and Purpose Raised by an Indo-Portuguese “Vestment” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Lisa Evans, Independent Scholar
Sponsor: Mediaevalia: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Medieval Studies Worldwide Organizer: Tina Chronopoulos, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies,
Binghamton Univ. Presider: Tina Chronopoulos
Female Homoeroticism in Hrotsvit of Gandersheim and Elizabeth of Schönau
Colleen Butler, Centre for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Toronto
Looking at when we can identify historic contexts as homoerotic and on what basis. 10th c. Hrotsvit, 12th c. Elizabeth. Took different approaches to their writings (Hrotsvit more classical and learned, Elizabeth more visionary and mystic) but both focused on virginity and the image of bride of Christ. Virginity was not the absense of erotic desire but an identity based on channeling erotic desire to God. This identity subverts compulsory heterosexuality and binary sex/gender. By removing themselves from the heterosexual marriage economy, nuns step outside male control and create the potential -- within a homosocial environment -- for homosexual desire. When two women exist in a parallel erotic relationship to the male Christ, there is the potential for the male figure to be backgrounded, leaving an erotically charged female-female relationship. [I'm leaving out a great deal of theoretical background and terminology because I can't keep up with it.] Hrotsvit's writings include significant material covering the "bride of Christ" motif in sexually charged language. Despite the superficial heterosexual framing ("bride of Christ"), the envisioning of a multiplicity of simultaneous brides further destabilizes the heterosexual model by bringing in a sort of polygamy but where the physicality is all female, that is, the emphasis is not on the one-to-one relationship to Christ, but on becoming part of an all-female community (of "brides of Christ"). Classical texts on the BoC motif that focused on the one-to-one aspect are rewritten to emphasize the community aspects.
Elizabeth takes this framing further in a vision where she sees Christ appearing as a woman. Evidently her advisors suggested that she want to rethink this vision and she answers with a following vision where she questions St. John on this matter, who confirms the correct reading (to her) of her original vision. Her writings in general feature struggles with erotic temptation and the conteis suggestive. Elizabeth's visions focus primarily on the Virgin with great emotional intensity and the preceding is one of the few featuring Christ.
Loving Men Then and Now: Reading Juvenal in the Twelfth-Century Classroom
Emily Blakelock, Centre for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Toronto
Juvenal (2nd century) comments regularly on the immorality of men's same-sex desire, especially as a part of corrupt urban culture, but 12th c. commentaries on Juvenal reveal more regarding 12th c. attitudes. 12th c. teaching styles involved a close line-by-line reading and explanation of the texts. These commentaries were part of developing a curriculum of ethics and the use of Juvenal's works allowed discussion of his topics in an approved context that could then be applied to contemporary life. There is a regular theme of the hypocriticality of philosophers who teach against sodomy but practice it in secret. This is particularly associated in the commentary with urban schools which are seen as hotbeds of vice, where young men are considered particularly vulnerable to being corrupted by older, experienced men. But the use of Juvenal and these commentaries to warn and instruct students against these activities also gives them ideas (and a vocabulary to use) that then show up in poetry in more positive contexts. [The rest covers a detailed exploration of some of these poems, which turn the condemnatory attitudes of Juvenal into something more sympathetic.]
Toward a History of the Reception of Homosexuality in Commentaries: The Case of the Scholia in Ibin
Pierluigi Gatti, Columbia Univ.
Focuses on schools and their texts as a locus of creating and communicating an understanding of sexuality in the Middle Ages. Commentaries as "cultural filter" for understanding the texts. Primary texts here: Virgil and Cicero. Cicero uses the accusation of effeminacy and passive homosexuality as an attack on his enemies in order to gain rhetorical advantage in public. While Cicero's language may be allusive the commentaries provide a more explicit and unambiguous explanation of the acts/nature in question, but also explicitly discuss Cicero's rhetorical purpose in making the claims. Vergil's topics cover only male homosexuality [I may have missed a reference to Cicero discussing female?] but while Vergil's language may be equivocal in casting judgment on his topics, the commentaries frame the subjects clearly negatively. [I'm having a bit of trouble following the paper due to accent and the fact that the handout has only the Latin texts, which takes me a little attention to work through.] Something something about understanding Vergil's subjects as being characteristically Greek, i.e., sexually suspect. We now come to an assertion that -- rather than being didactic literature aimed at students for practical instruction, these commentaries are part of an intellectual discussion within the closed learned community. [I'm afraid I rather zoned out on this one.]
Because so many of my readers are textile geeks, the third DISTAFF session, which I skipped in favor of the above, was:
Session 486 Dress and Textiles III: Analyzing Artifacts
Sponsor: DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion)
Organizer: Robin Netherton, DISTAFF
Presider: Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Univ. of Manchester
Yet Another Look at the Bayeux Tapestry: Some Thoughts from a Spinner’s and Weaver’s Perspective
Sarah Delinger, Independent Scholar
The Lübeck Wappenrock: Distinctive Style in Fifteenth-Century German Fabric Armor
Jessica Finley, Independent Scholar
Coping with Connoisseurship: Issues in Attribution and Purpose Raised by an Indo-Portuguese “Vestment” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Lisa Evans, Independent Scholar
