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Rites of Passage: Cultures of Transition in the Fourteenth Century
A wide variety of texts (from chronicles to Chaucer) studied for evidence of medieval attitudes towards the processes of change as they affected individuals at all points of their lives.
Rites of passage is a term and concept more used than considered. Here, for the first time, its implications are applied and tested in the field of medieval medievalists from a range of disciplines consider the varioustheoretical models - folklorist, anthropological, psychoanalytical - that can be used to analyse cultures of transition in the history and literature of fourteenth-century Europe. Ranging over a wide variety of texts, from chronicles to romances, from priests' manuals to courtesy books, from state records to the writings of Chaucer, Gower and Froissart, the contributors identify and analyse medieval attitudes to the process of change in lifecycle, status,gender and power. A substantive introduction by Miri Rubin draws together the ideas and materials discussed in the book to illustrate the relevance and importance of anthropology to the study of medieval culture.
JOEL BURDEN, PATRICIA CULLUM, ISABEL DAVIS, JANE GILBERT, SARAH KAY, MARK ORMROD, HELEN PHILLIPS, MIRI RUBIN, SHARON WELLS.
NICOLA F. McDONALD is Lecturer in Medieval Literature, the late W.M ORMROD was Professor of Medieval History, University of York.
Rites of passage is a term and concept more used than considered. Here, for the first time, its implications are applied and tested in the field of medieval medievalists from a range of disciplines consider the varioustheoretical models - folklorist, anthropological, psychoanalytical - that can be used to analyse cultures of transition in the history and literature of fourteenth-century Europe. Ranging over a wide variety of texts, from chronicles to romances, from priests' manuals to courtesy books, from state records to the writings of Chaucer, Gower and Froissart, the contributors identify and analyse medieval attitudes to the process of change in lifecycle, status,gender and power. A substantive introduction by Miri Rubin draws together the ideas and materials discussed in the book to illustrate the relevance and importance of anthropology to the study of medieval culture.
JOEL BURDEN, PATRICIA CULLUM, ISABEL DAVIS, JANE GILBERT, SARAH KAY, MARK ORMROD, HELEN PHILLIPS, MIRI RUBIN, SHARON WELLS.
NICOLA F. McDONALD is Lecturer in Medieval Literature, the late W.M ORMROD was Professor of Medieval History, University of York.
186 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2004
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August 7, 2023
Anthropology of 14th century Europe. I skipped most of the chapters, which looked at different bits of literature to demonstrate various theses, and just read the chapter on the "minor orders" of the Church, as it collected some information I'd been unable to find elsewhere in a coherent form: how the medieval Church "raised" clergy from childhood, which it turns out was a serious minor ordinations that only a small minority followed through into the priesthood, but which helps explain the many "clerks" of the middle ages. Four stars for that chapter!
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