398. Experimental Courses
Sex, Gender, and the Body in the Medieval East and West
This class will explore conceptions of sex, gender, the body, and sexuality in Byzantium and western medieval Europe (c. 300-c. 1400 CE). Topics will include the roles of women in society; the manipulation of Christian bodies through torture, asceticism, and ritual; and the blurring of traditional gender lines through same-sex relations, cross-dressing, martyrdom, and castration. In reading primary and secondary texts, we will consider how we apply modern concepts such as gender and homosexuality to the Middle Ages, and discuss the legacy of medieval ideas about sexuality and the body.