Male Saints and Devotional Masculinity in Late Medieval England

This article considers the ways in which the lives of male monastic saints circulating in late medieval England (and the cults of male saints more widely) were underpinned by certain ideas and ideals of masculinity and the functions which these performed. It argues for the significance of male saints serving as devotional models for the lay audience of these texts (both men and women). The two main sources are William Caxton's Golden Legend (published in 1483) and his Vitas Patrum (published after his death by Wynkyn de Worde in 1495). It therefore seeks to make a contribution to our understanding of the ways in which piety was used to assess masculinity, but also the extent to which piety as a social identity (both public and private in nature) was informed by notions of manliness.     

Separating the Men from the Boys: Masculinity and Maturity in Understandings of Shell Shock in Britain

This article examines gendered discourses of shell shock inBritain during the First World War. Located within the contextof the ideas about shell shock as a form of male hysteria putforward by Elaine Showalter, it examines the ways in which thecontemporary discourses of soldiers, medical professionals andpopular novelists used ideas of maturity and self-control tounderstand a condition that appeared to undermine both the wareffort and national masculinity. It argues that contemporaryunderstandings of authority and maturity helped to normalizeshell shock as a medical condition, thereby lessening its perceivedthreat to society.     

欧洲中世纪后期的异端运动与妇女权利

在中世纪基督教异端研究中,妇女问题一直是西方史学家关注的重要问题。本文通过对贝居因派、古列尔迈派、卡特里派、韦尔多派和罗拉德派这五个10世纪以后欧洲比较重要的大众异端派别中女性权利的总结和分析,指出她们享有大致与男性相等的宗教权利和自由,即效仿基督贫穷的权利、完成部分圣礼的权利、接受平等宗教和文化教育的权利。虽然在实践中,由于传统性别观念的影响,她们的权利实践或多或少受到限制,但她们依然获得了比天主教妇女更大的权利和自由,打破了传统社会对女性的限制和禁忌,获得了一定的发言权。尤其是贝居因派和古列尔迈派的妇女表现出的强烈的女性意识,被认为是妇女争取平等权利的榜样,对后世女性主义的发展具有借鉴意义。     

The Jew,the Blood and the Body in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

The reality of the blood libel legend and accusations of ritual murder against Jews in medieval and early modern times has been widely discredited by scholars. They demonstrate instead the processes by which the exclusion of a perceived ethnical and religious enemy strengthened the communal identity of European society at that time. The aim of this paper is to look at the alleged bodily evidence of the libel—the blood—and at the controversial way in which it has been perceived by different groups of people over time. This approach illuminates the fears and beliefs that fed hatred of Jews beyond its original manifestation as a religious motif in relation to the crucifixion of Christ.