Research Catalog

Title

Seeing sodomy in the Middle Ages / Robert Mills.

Author

Mills, Robert, 1973-

Publication

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 398 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color); 27 cm

Summary

"During the Middle Ages in Europe, some sexual and gendered behaviors were labeled "sodomitical" or evoked the use of ambiguous phrases such as the "unmentionable vice" or the "sin against nature." How, though, did these categories enter the field of vision? How do you know a sodomite when you see one? In Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages, Robert Mills explores the relationship between sodomy and motifs of vision and visibility in medieval culture, on the one hand, and those categories we today call gender and sexuality, on the other. Challenging the view that ideas about sexual and gender dissidence were too confused to congeal into a coherent form in the Middle Ages, Mills demonstrates that sodomy had a rich, multimedia presence in the period--and that a flexible approach to questions of terminology sheds new light on the many forms this presence took. Among the topics that Mills covers are depictions of the practices of sodomites in illuminated Bibles; motifs of gender transformation and sex change as envisioned by medieval artists and commentators on Ovid; sexual relations in religious houses and other enclosed spaces; and the applicability of modern categories such as "transgender," "butch" and "femme," or "sexual orientation" to medieval culture."--Publisher's description.

Subject

• Sodomy in art
• Sodomy > Europe
• Art, Medieval > Europe
• Sodomy in literature
• Vision in literature
• Literature, Medieval > History and criticism

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-382) .and index.

Contents

Introduction: Jerome in a dress -- Translating Sodom -- Transgender time -- The first sodomite -- The sex lives of monks -- Orientations -- Conclusions.

Call Number

JFF 16-549

ISBN

• 9780226169125
• 022616912X
• 022616926X
• 9780226169262
• 9780226169262 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2014023239

OCLC

871670498

Author

Mills, Robert, 1973- author.

Title

Seeing sodomy in the Middle Ages / Robert Mills.

Publisher

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-382) .and index.

Connect to:

ebrary

Research Call Number

JFF 16-549