Performing Virginity and Testing Chastity in the Middle Ages

Description

first heard about in Undheim 2017

Introduction (ref:7) contains a good overview of the Scholastics' conceptions of chastity and virginity. St. Albert's four-fold categorization of chastity summarized in ref:7.26.

Interesting observations of St. Jeann d'Arc, "they never felt sensual desire when they saw her" (ref:9.5), are similar to Voragine's of the Blessed Virgin.

Author was raised in Catholic schooling and is not anti-Catholic or anti-medieval-thinking; ref:12.9: "at my Confirmation, I had chosen to be named for Jeanne d’Arc because I had been taught to admire her chastity and her bravery.) […] I could have used a little less bravery and a little more chastity—and a good deal more enchantment."

ref:8.4-10 are on St. Joan of Arc's virginity test, during her Trial of Rehabilitation (1456) and again later.

This book challenges the belief that female virginity can be reliably and unambiguously defined, tested and verified. Kelly analyses a variety of medieval Western European texts - including medical treatises and their Classical antecedents - and historical and legal documents. The main focus is the representation of both male and female virgins in saints'legends and romances. The author also makes a comparative study of examples from contemporary fiction, television and film in which testing virginity is a theme. Performing Virginity and Testing Chastity in the Middle Ages presents a compelling and provocative study of the parodox of bodily and spiritual integrity as both presence and absence.