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oapen-20.500.12657-497912023-05-23T11:59:12Z Gender, Reading, and Truth in the Twelfth Century Powell, Morgan Literacy gender medieval romance religious instruction vernacular literature fiction bic Book Industry Communication::D Literature & literary studies The twelfth century witnessed the birth of modern Western European literary tradition: major narrative works appeared in both French and in German, founding a literary culture independent of the Latin traditions of the church and Roman Antiquity. What gave rise to the sudden interest in and legitimization of literature in these “vulgar tongues?” Until now, the answer has centered on the somewhat nebulous role of new female readers. Powell argues that this explanation is neither adequately documented nor sufficient to its object; and more importantly, a different appraisal of the same evidence offers a window onto something far more momentous: not “women readers” but instead a reading act conceived of as female lies behind the polysemic identification of women as the audience of new media in the twelfth century. This woman is at the center of a re-conception of Christian knowing, a veritable revolution in the mediation of knowledge and truth. By following this figure through detailed readings of key early works, Powell unveils a surprise, a new poetics of the body meant to embrace the capacities of new audiences and viewers of medieval literature and visual art. 2021-07-08T11:25:43Z 2021-07-08T11:25:43Z 2020 book ONIX_20210708_9781641893770_7 9781641893770 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/49791 eng application/pdf Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International 9781641893770.pdf https://www.doabooks.org/doab?func=search&uiLanguage=en&template=&query=9781641893787 Arc Humanities Press 10.17302/MMC-9781641893770 10.17302/MMC-9781641893770 e8579ecb-7a9a-49c1-9777-413adf1559c9 07f61e34-5b96-49f0-9860-c87dd8228f26 9781641893770 Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) 10BP12_189738 Open Access Books The Woman in the Mirror: Gender, Reading and Truth in the Twelfth Century Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung Swiss National Science Foundation open access
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The twelfth century witnessed the birth of modern Western European literary tradition: major narrative works appeared in both French and in German, founding a literary culture independent of the Latin traditions of the church and Roman Antiquity. What gave rise to the sudden interest in and legitimization of literature in these “vulgar tongues?” Until now, the answer has centered on the somewhat nebulous role of new female readers. Powell argues that this explanation is neither adequately documented nor sufficient to its object; and more importantly, a different appraisal of the same evidence offers a window onto something far more momentous: not “women readers” but instead a reading act conceived of as female lies behind the polysemic identification of women as the audience of new media in the twelfth century. This woman is at the center of a re-conception of Christian knowing, a veritable revolution in the mediation of knowledge and truth. By following this figure through detailed readings of key early works, Powell unveils a surprise, a new poetics of the body meant to embrace the capacities of new audiences and viewers of medieval literature and visual art.
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