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

Sexuality is one of the most influential factors in human life. The responses to and reflections upon the manifestations of sexuality provide fascinating insights into fundamental aspects of medieval and early-modern culture. This interdisciplinary volume with articles written by social historians, literary historians, musicologists, art historians, and historians of religion and mental-ity demonstrates how fruitful collaborative efforts can be in the exploration of essential features of human society. Practically every aspect of culture both in the Middle Ages and the early modern age was influenced and determined by sexuality, which hardly ever surfaces simply characterized by prurient interests. The treatment of sexuality in literature, chronicles, music, art, legal documents, and in scientific texts illuminates central concerns, anxieties, tensions, needs, fears, and problems in human society throughout times.

"Dem Herausgeber ist es gelungen, eine internationale Autorenschar mit unterschiedlichem fachlichen Hintergrund zu versammeln. Das Ergebnis ist ein stattlicher 900-Seiten-Band, der ein ebenso facettenreiches wie profundes Bild von unterschiedlichen (überwiegend diskursiven) Aspekten mittelalterlicher und frühneuzeitlicher Sexualität liefert."
Ortrun Riha in: Das Mittelalter 15/2010

"Sexualitiy in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times delivers a number of perspectives on medieval sexuality in a lot of space. [...] It could very likely, for its breadth and insight, become a centerpiece for a number of dissertations."
Patrick Brugh in: Focus on German Studies 16/2009