The Feminine, the Monstrous and the Supernatural in the English Middle Ages

Contact details:

Lecturer: Dr Rafał Borysławski

Office hours (room 4.1) : Tue., 9.15-10.30; Tue., 14.45-15.30; Thu. by appt.

Email: [e-mail]

www.ikila.us.edu.pl

Why women? Why monstrosities? And why the supernatural?

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their ambivalence and thus their cultural potential (beyond the Middle Ages);

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their marginality in the Middle Ages (and beyond);

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their representations of otherness (i.e. non-dominant discourses) in the Middle Ages (and beyond);

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the cultural disturbance they cause in medieval (and not only?) discourses;

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And, last but not least…

they are hugely attractive culturally (medievally and not only).

Speculum mundi – the mirror of the world?
Perhaps we can see more about early European culture when it is viewed against the way it treated otherness?
Perhaps we can see ourselves differently if we view our culture against medieval treatments of otherness and
cultural margins?













Some contexts of medieval femininity

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Eve vs. Virgin Mary – misogyny vs. adoration;

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the archetype of the Great Goddess and the archetype of the seeress / witch –the forbidden element;

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the "magic" of life an death, the "magic" of nature;

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connections with nature: "wildness" of women, controlled by their bodies;

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a psychoanalytical approach: attraction (also sexual) and fear;

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but: fin amor, idealization of women and sublimation of love;

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thus woman as offering a way towards perfection, social and moral improvement.