Animal Husbandry: Bestiality in Medieval Culture

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-42966-6
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 26, 296 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Explorations in Medieval Culture

How was bestiality perceived in the Middle Ages? The answer is far from simple. Depending on the context, it might be a kingmaking ritual, a boys’ game, a pact with the devil, a peccadillo or a capital offense. As dangerous as it could be to be suspected by one’s own neighbors of committing bestiality, medieval literature and art are full of often exhilarating erotic interspecies encounters. In the end, this volume suggests that there is a zoophilic streak in all humans – the medievals as well as ourselves.

Contributors are Crystal Beamer, Bailey Flannery, Katherine Leach, Marian E. Polhill, Anna Russakoff, Joyce E. Salisbury, Andrea Schutz,
Jacqueline A. Stuhmiller, Larissa Tracy, and Tess Wingard.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Stuhmiller, Jacqueline A.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophische Anthropologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

PrefaceIi

List of Figures

List of Contributors

Introduction: the Stallion and the Unicorn, or, Animal Lovers Jacqueline A. Stuhmiller

Part 1: Bestiality in Theory

1 Contra naturam: Bestiality in Medieval Scientific Discourse Marian E. Polhill

2 “Between the Paws of a Tender Wolf”: Medieval Influences and Other Tales (Un)Told in Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber Bailey Flannery

Part 2: Bestiality in Practice

3 The Animality of Man: Sexual Transgression and Animal Transformation in a Middle Welsh Prose Tale Katherine Leach

4 Bestiality, Confession and Social Control in Late Medieval England Tess Wingard

5 Bestial Intercourse in Cheuelere Assigne Crystal Beamer

Part 3: Marrying the Beast

6 Sympathizing with the Werewolf’s Wife: the Dynamics of Trust, Betrayal, and Bestiality in Bisclavret Larissa Tracy

7 “Wulf, min wulf”: Animal Others and Animal Lovers in “Wulf and Eadwacer” Andrea Schutz

Part 4: The Pleasures of Bestiality

8 Bestiality in Medieval Art: Cross-cultural Reflections on a Lascivious Lacuna Anna Russakoff

9 “Shame to Him Who Thinks Evil”: the Deviant Pleasures of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Jacqueline A. Stuhmiller

Conclusion: Bestiality: Some Things Stay the Same. … Joyce E. Salisbury

Bibliography 267

Index 275

Über Autor(innen)

Jacqueline A. Stuhmiller, Ph.D. (2005), Cornell University, is Associate Teaching Professor in the Honors College at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has published articles on medieval hunting and poaching, trial by combat, and giants.