Sexuality in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: New Approaches to a Fundamental Cultural-Historical and Literary-Anthropological Theme (review)

This hefty volume is the result of the Fifth International Symposium on Medieval and Early Modern Studies held at the University of Arizona in May 2007. Not until the end of Albrecht Classen's lengthy and laborious introduction that would suffice as a small monograph in itself is this fact revealed (p. 139). Both the conference and the collection owe their existence to Classen's initiative and energy. In addition to the introduction he gives generous summaries of the twenty-eight articles, two of which are his own, offers comments and additions to the authors' footnotes, provides abstracts of the articles presented in German, and personally prepared the camera-ready copy for final publication. The result is impressive with few typos, but only mistakes in numbering of the footnotes.

The theme of the volume is the irrepressibility of sex, as can be deciphered from Classen's unwieldy title to his introduction that deserves to be cited in full: "The Cultural Significance of Sexuality in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and Beyond. A Secret Continuous Undercurrent or a Dominant Phenomenon of the Premodern World? Or: The Irrepressibility of Sex Yesterday and Today" (p. 1). The introduction is divided into fourteen minichapters of which the most interesting are entitled the "Eroticization of the Reader/Listener" (no. 8) and "The Erotic, Sexuality, and the Pornographic?" (no. 9). He furnishes penetrating analyses of the double entendres in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose, and Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron, but his results are too pointu for an introduction for which conclusions would have served better. Important for his argument of the cultural continuity of sexuality is the chapter entitled "Sexuality and the Process of Civilization" (no. 12), where he criticizes both Norbert Elias and Hans Peter Duerr for their diverging views on shame caused by the naked body—obviously an issue important for sexuality. In contrast to Classen's continuity, Elias, a sociologist, saw shame emerging as a sign of modernity by the end of the Middle Ages, whereas Duerr, an anthropologist, argued for its universality in time and space.

The twenty-eight articles are arranged vaguely according to the principles of chronology and geography and the authors comprise twenty women and eight men from the academic hierarchy ranging from graduate students to full professors. Most were trained and are employed in the United States, but participants from Australia, Austria, France, Germany, and Spain represent the larger world. Particularly noteworthy are those from lesser-known institutions in the United States. This broad spectrum confirms the ubiquity of sexuality as a new theme in medieval historiography. German essays are furnished with English abstracts. The collection reveals remarkable teamwork; not only has Classen read all the contributions but the authors have scrutinized the introduction and are aware of each other's essays, as evidenced by many cross-references.

Although the subject of sexuality is of interest to historians as well as to literary scholars, it becomes clear that literary texts provide more information than historical documents. In fact, only five of the essays treat historical subjects. Peter Dinzelbacher deals straightforwardly with "Gruppensex im Untergrund," a subject that largely concerns heretical movements. Andrew Holt treats "Feminine Sexuality and the Crusades," Jennifer D. Thibodeaux "The Sexual Lives of Medieval Norman Clerics," Sara McDougall "The Prosecution of Sex in Late Medieval Troyes," and Stephanie Fink DeBacker a funeral memorial in Spain constructed about 1580 in Toledo to which I shall return. Gertrud Blaschitz examines even the brothel—seemingly a straight historical subject—exclusively from literary and artistic sources in "Das Freudenhaus im Mittelalter."

The remaining twenty-three essays analyze sexuality from literary or artistic sources. Sometimes present-day concerns dominate the research; Rasma Lazda-Cazers who examines "Oral Sex in the...