Medieval Single Women

The Politics of Social Classification in Late Medieval England

Cordelia Beattie (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

195 Seiten

2007
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-928341-5 (ISBN)

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The single woman is a troubling and disruptive category. Does it denote all unmarried women, therefore creating a group which every female was part of at some stage in her life? Or, were the categories 'maiden' and 'widow' so culturally significant in late medieval England that 'single woman' was a residual category for women seen as anomalous? Was the category 'single man' used in an equivalent way and, if not, why? This study offers a way into the complex process of social classification in late medieval England.

All societies use classifications in order to understand and impose order. In this book, Cordelia Beattie views classification as a political act, an act of power: those classifying must make choices about which divisions are most important or about who falls into which category, and such choices have repercussions. Defining how a group or an individual should be labelled, means variables such as social status, gender, or age, are prioritized. Rather than isolate gender as a variable, this book examines how it relates to other social cleavages. Using a variety of approaches, from social and cultural history, to gender history, and medieval studies, its original methodology offers an innovative approach to a range of historical texts, from pastoral manuals to tax returns, and guild registers.

INTRODUCTION ; Medieval classification schemes ; Single woman as a category of difference ; 1. Classification in Cultural Context ; Clean maids, true wives, and steadfast widows ; Femmes soles ; Marriage, social change, and the politics of classification ; 2. The Single Woman in a Penitential Discourse ; Penitential discourse, women, and sexual sin ; Fourteen degrees of active lechery ; Seven states of chastity ; 3. The Single Woman in a Fiscal Discourse ; The schedule for the 1379 tax and the classification process ; The Bishop's Lynn poll tax return of 1379 ; Widows, daughters, and work ; Thinking with single women ; 4. The Single Woman in Guild Texts ; Single sisters and the guild returns of 1388-9 ; Maidens and single men: the register of the guild of the Holy Cross, Stratford-upon-Avon (1406-1535) ; 5. 'Singlewoman' as a Personal Designation ; Early examples of 'singlewoman' ; York's civic records c.1475-c.1540 ; From the medieval to the early modern ; CONCLUSION: CULTURAL INTERSECTIONS

Erscheint lt. Verlag	13.9.2007
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	144 x 223 mm
Gewicht	380 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
ISBN-10	0-19-928341-9 / 0199283419
ISBN-13	978-0-19-928341-5 / 9780199283415
Zustand	Neuware