TY - BOOK ID - 86048979 TI - Perceptions of femininity in early Irish society PY - 2016 SN - 1782046550 1783271167 PB - Woodbridge ; Rochester, NY : The Boydell Press, DB - UniCat KW - Femininity. KW - Femininity (Psychology) KW - Sex (Psychology) KW - Women KW - Femininity in literature. KW - Sex role KW - Femininity KW - History KW - Gender role KW - Sex differences (Psychology) KW - Social role KW - Gender expression KW - Sexism KW - Femininity (Psychology) in literature KW - Human females KW - Wimmin KW - Woman KW - Womon KW - Womyn KW - Females KW - Human beings KW - To 1500 KW - Ireland. KW - Airlann KW - Airurando KW - Éire KW - Irish Republic KW - Irland KW - Irlanda KW - Irlande KW - Irlanti KW - Írország KW - Poblacht na hÉireann KW - Republic of Ireland KW - Gender roles KW - Gendered role KW - Gendered roles KW - Role, Gender KW - Role, Gendered KW - Role, Sex KW - Roles, Gender KW - Roles, Gendered KW - Roles, Sex KW - Sex roles KW - Irish feminism. KW - Irish history. KW - Irish literature. KW - academia. KW - female gaze. KW - feminism. KW - gender and women's studies. KW - masculinity. KW - middle ages. KW - scholarship. KW - women in Ireland. KW - women in fiction. KW - women's rights. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:86048979 AB - Was femininity in early Irish society perceived as weak and sinful, innately inferior to masculinity? Was it seen as powerful and dangerous, a threat to the peace and tranquility of male society? Orwas there a more nuanced view, an understanding that femininity, or femininities, could be presented in a variety of ways according to the pragmatic concerns of the writer?
This book examines the sources surviving from fifth- to ninth-century Ireland, aiming to offer a fresh view of authorial perceptions of the period. It seeks to highlight the complexities of those perceptions, the significance of authorial aims and purposes in the construction of femininity, and the potential disjunction between societal "reality" and the images presented to us in the sources. This careful analysis of a broad range of early Irish sources demonstrates how fluid constructions of gender could be, and presents a new interpretation of the position of femininity in the thought world of early Irish authors. Helen Oxenham worked at the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic in Cambridge as supervisor and researcher on the Mapping Miracles project. She now works for The EnglishHeritage Trust. ER -