Gender and Intersectionality in Medieval and Early Modern Literature

Catalog description

The course will focus on the paradigms of gender theory and intersectional theory in dialogue with selected premodern literary texts. The construction of gender roles and identities, the potential for social discrimination, and the negotiation of power relations are key aspects of pre-modern literature. On the one hand, these texts are highly heteronormative and ideologically centered on a certain form of heroic masculinity; on the other hand, they are replete with remarkable 'deviations' from this model. There are, for example, supernaturally gifted and powerful women, Amazons, figures with fluid sexuality and non-normative body images. These figures challenge the supposedly fixed social norms and stereotypes, but are often sanctioned though exclusion, violence and/or the deconstruction of their power and agency. Drawing on relevant theoretical texts (e.g. Judith Butler, Kimberle Crenshaw, Kathy Davis, Katharina Walgenbach), we will discuss central positions of gender and intersectional theory. These paradigms, which were developed for the analysis of gender conceptions and social injustices in modernity, will then inform our close readings of various literary texts/text excerpts (e.g. Parzival, Nibelungenlied, Eneasroman). All texts available in English.