Medicine, Religion and Gender in Medieval Culture (Gender in the Middle Ages, 11)

Current Preoccupations With The Body Have Led To A Growing Interest In The Intersections Between Religion, Literature And The History Of Medicine, And, More Specifically, How They Converge Within A Given Culture. This Collection Of Essays Explores The Ways In Which Aspects Of Medieval Culture Were Predicated Upon An Interaction Between Medical And Religious Discourses, Particularly Those Inflected By Contemporary Gendered Ideologies. The Essays Interrogate This Convergence Broadly In A Number Of Different Ways: Textually, Conceptually, Historically, Socially And Culturally. They Argue For An Inextricable Relationship Between The Physical And Spiritual In Accounts Of Health, Illness And Disability, And Demonstrate How Medical, Religious And Gender Discourses Were Integrated In Medieval Culture -- Provided By Publisher. Introduction / Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa -- Pt. I. Mary The Physician. Mary The Physician : Women, Religion And Medicine In The Middle Ages / Diane Watt. Chaucer's Physicians : Raising Questions Of Authority / Roberta Magnani -- Pt. Ii. Female Mysticism And Metaphors Of Illness. Heavenly Vision And Psychosomatic Healing : Medical Discourse In Mechtild Of Hackeborn's The Booke Of Gostlye Grace / Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa. Bathing In Blood : The Medicinal Cures Of Anchoritic Devotion / Liz Herbert Mcavoy. 'maybe I'm Crazy?' : Diagnosis And Contextualisation Of Medieval Female Mystics / Juliette Vuille -- Pt. Iii. Fifteenth-century Poetry And Theological Prose. Purgatory And Spiritual Healing In John Audelay's Poems / Takami Matsuda. Reginald Pecock's Reading Heart And The Health Of Body And Soul / Louise M. Bishop -- Pt. Iv. Disfigurement And Disability. Disabled Children : Birth Defects, Causality And Guilt / Irina Metzler -- Marking The Face, Curing The Soul? : Reading The Disfigurement Of Women In The Later Middle Ages / Patricia Skinner -- Did Drunkenness Dim The Sight? : Medieval Understandings And Responses To Blindness In Medical And Religious Discourse / Joy Hawkins -- Between Palliative Care And Curing The Soul : Medical And Religious Responses To Leprosy In France And England, C. 1100-c. 1500 / Elma Brenner -- Afterword / Denis Renevey. Edited By Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 249-279) And Index. Current preoccupations with the body have led to a growing interest in the intersections between religion, literature and the history of medicine, and, more specifically, how they converge within a given culture. This collection of essays explores the ways in which aspects of medieval culture were predicated upon an interaction between medical and religious discourses, particularly those inflected by contemporary gendered ideologies. The essays interrogate this convergence broadly in a number of different ways: textually, conceptually, historically, socially and culturally. They argue for an inextricable relationship between the physical and spiritual in accounts of health, illness and disability, and demonstrate how medical, religious and gender discourses were integrated in medieval culture.Nao Kukita Yoshikawa is Professor of English in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shizuoka University.Contributors: Louise M. Bishop, Elma Brenner, Joy Hawkins, Roberta Magnani, Takami Matsuda, Liz Herbert McAvoy, Irina Metzler, Denis Renevey, Patricia Skinner, Juliette Vuille, Diane Watt, Nao Kukita Yoshikawa. Frontcover 1 Contents 8 Contributors 10 Acknowledgements 14 Abbreviations 16 Introduction 18 PART I: MARY THE PHYSICIAN 42 1 Mary the Physician: Women, Religion and Medicine in the Middle Ages 44 2 Chaucer’s Physicians: Raising Questions of Authority 62 PART II: FEMALE MYSTICISM AND METAPHORS OF ILLNESS 82 3 Heavenly Vision and Psychosomatic Healing: Medical Discourse in Mechtild of Hackeborn’s The Booke of Gostlye Grace 84 4 Bathing in Blood: The Medicinal Cures of Anchoritic Devotion 102 5 ‘Maybe I’m Crazy?’ Diagnosis and Contextualisation of Medieval Female Mystics 120 PART III: FIFTEENTH-CENTURY POETRY AND THEOLOGICAL PROSE 138 6 Purgatory and Spiritual Healing in John Audelay’s Poems 140 7 Reginald Pecock’s Reading Heart and the Health of Body and Soul 156 PART IV: DISFIGUREMENT AND DISABILITY 176 8 Disabled Children: Birth Defects, Causality and Guilt 178 9 Marking the Face, Curing the Soul? Reading the Disfigurement of Women in the Later Middle Ages 198 10 Did Drunkenness Dim the Sight? Medieval Understandings and Responses to Blindness in Medical and Religious Discourse 220 11 Between Palliative Care and Curing the Soul: Medical and Religious Responses to Leprosy in France and England, c. 1100–c. 1500 238 Afterword 254 Select Bibliography 266 Index 298 Literary Criticism,Medieval,Medical,History,Social Science,Gender Studies An exploration of the relations between medical and religious discourse and practice in medieval culture, focussing on how they are affected by gender.Current preoccupations with the body have led to a growing interest in the intersections between religion, literature and the history of medicine, and, more specifically, how they converge within a given culture. This collection of essays explores the ways in which aspects of medieval culture were predicated upon an interaction between medical and religious discourses, particularly those inflected by contemporary gendered ideologies. The essays interrogatethis convergence broadly in a number of different ways: textually, conceptually, historically, socially and culturally. They argue for an inextricable relationship between the physical and spiritual in accounts of health, illness and disability, and demonstrate how medical, religious and gender discourses were integrated in medieval culture. Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa is Professor of English in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shizuoka University. Contributors: Louise M. Bishop, Elma Brenner, Joy Hawkins, Roberta Magnani, Takami Matsuda, Liz Herbert McAvoy, Irina Metzler, Denis Renevey, Patricia Skinner, Juliette Vuille, Diane Watt, Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa. Current preoccupations with the body have led to a growing interest in the intersections between religion, literature and the history of medicine, and, more specifically, how they converge within a given culture. This collection of essays explores the ways in which aspects of medieval culture were predicated upon an interaction between medical and religious discourses, particularly those inflected by contemporary gendered ideologies. The essays interrogate this convergence broadly in a number of different ways: textually, conceptually, historically, socially and culturally. They argue for an inextricable relationship between the physical and spiritual in accounts of health, illness and disability, and demonstrate how medical, religious and gender discourses were integrated in medieval culture. Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa is Professor of English in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shizuoka University. Contributors: Louise M. Bishop, Elma Brenner, Joy Hawkins, Roberta Magnani, Takami Matsuda, Liz Herbert McAvoy, Irina Metzler, Denis Renevey, Patricia Skinner, Juliette Vuille, Diane Watt, Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa