Overview

The love of looking, or scopophilia, is a common motif among female figures in medieval art and literature where it is usually expressed as a motherly or sexually interested gaze—one sanctioned, the other forbidden. Sandra Summers investigates these two major variants of female voyeurism in exemplary didactic and courtly literature by medieval German authors. Setting the motif against the period’s dominant patriarchal ethos and its almost exclusive pattern of male authorship, Summers argues that the maternal gaze was endorsed as a stabilising influence while the erotic gaze was condemned as a threat to medieval order. Summers brings to her analysis a consideration of several fascinating questions. Did medieval artists and writers invent the idea of “ogling,” or did they record a behavioural practice common at the time? How did the act of ogling alter a female character’s narrative trajectory? How did this effect figure into the regulation and restriction of women during Europe’s Middle Ages? Drawing upon contemporary gender studies, women’s studies, film studies, and psychology, Summers argues that the female gaze ultimately governs social formation. Her provocative, relevant use of modern critical theory helps win new insights for the field of medieval literature.

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9780813044187

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Offers a welcome addition to the growing list of works on visuality and sight in medieval German literature by examining not just sight but the phenomenon of the gaze from a feminist perspective. . . . The author treats an extensive body of medieval German conduct literature and courtly romance. --Journal of English and Germanic Philology Uncovers views and points of view surrounding the female gaze that reveal misogynistic standards of behavior, both within the selected didactic and courtly texts and with respect to the recipients, be they listeners or readers. --Choice The author's wide-ranging selection of passages makes this book worthwhile for those who may not be familiar with fascinating, yet often underread, works like Der Renner and Von des todes gehugde. The interpretations of more familiar works, such as the Eneasroman, Parzival, Erec, and Iwein, should provoke future discussion and research on the cultural implications of gazing in medieval German literature. --Speculum

"""Offers a welcome addition to the growing list of works on visuality and sight in medieval German literature by examining not just sight but the phenomenon of the gaze from a feminist perspective. . . . The author treats an extensive body of medieval German conduct literature and courtly romance.""--Journal of English and Germanic Philology ""Uncovers views and points of view surrounding the female gaze that reveal misogynistic standards of behavior, both within the selected didactic and courtly texts and with respect to the recipients, be they listeners or readers.""--Choice ""The author's wide-ranging selection of passages makes this book worthwhile for those who may not be familiar with fascinating, yet often underread, works like Der Renner and Von des todes gehugde. The interpretations of more familiar works, such as the Eneasroman, Parzival, Erec, and Iwein, should provoke future discussion and research on the cultural implications of gazing in medieval German literature.""--Speculum"

Author Information

Sandra Lindemann Summers is a lecturer in German at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, USA.

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