Between Medieval Men: Male Friendship and Desire in Early Medieval English Literature

by David Clark

Between Medieval Men argues for the importance of synoptically examining the whole range of same-sex relations in the Anglo-Saxon period, revisiting well-known texts and issues (as well as material often considered marginal) from a radically different perspective. The introductory chapters first lay out the premises underlying the book and its critical context, then emphasise the need to avoid modern cultural assumptions about both male-female and male-male relationships, and underline the paramount place of homosocial bonds in Old English literature. Part II then investigates the construction of and attitudes to same-sex acts and identities in ethnographic, penitential, and theological texts, ranging widely throughout the Old English corpus and drawing on Classical, Medieval Latin, and Old Norse material. Part III expands the focus to homosocial bonds in Old English literature in order to explore the range of associations for same-sex intimacy and their representation in
literary texts such as Genesis A , Beowulf , The Battle of Maldon , The Dream of the Rood , The Phoenix , and AElfric's Lives of Saints.

During the course of the book's argument, David Clark uncovers several under-researched issues and suggests fruitful approaches for their investigation. He concludes that, in omitting to ask certain questions of Anglo-Saxon material, in being too willing to accept the status quo indicated by the extant corpus, in uncritically importing invisible (because normative) heterosexist assumptions in our reading, we risk misrepresenting the diversity and complexity that a more nuanced approach to issues of gender and sexuality suggests may be more genuinely characteristic of the period.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer, Gender Studies

248 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 2009

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Dr Clark specialises in medieval literature with a current focus on medieval gender and sexuality and the modern reception of medieval literature.

Reviews

[Highlyeccentric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a very odd history with this book! I think I have dipped into it for cites before, but only now read the intro properly. And more importantly, until recently I had it confused with... I don't know what book. But one published before this one. I remember being warned about *someone* over-determining homosexuality into Old English and Norse heroic masculinites, circa 2007/8 (the book may have been older than that), and when i returned to my MPhil as a now queer scholar I just assumed this must have been the book in question (which had come out in 2009). It does not do that! Nor does Frantzen, the only other logical contender - in fact if anything Frantzen UNDER-determines sexual possibilities in favour of weird noble homoerotic but not sexual bonding, something that makes much more sense now he's taken a turn toward the alt-right. Read David Clark, not Frantzen, if you are looking for early medieval homosociality.

ANYWAY. One day I will actually read all of this book cover-to-cover but for now I have read the intro and Ch1, and found them Good, Actually.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clarke uses the work of Sedgwick to map out male homosocial/homosexual bonds in the Middle Ages. He progresses his research one step farther than Sedgwick by mapping the history of how sodomy was defined by the Church through the Middle Ages. This makes a profound difference and pairs very well with Sedgwick's work.

[M F]

The first section of this was the most useful for me, and I ended up with a fair few notes and references to follow up on that. As it moved towards more specific readings of Old English texts it lost me, because I'm working on Irish material and have never actually studied Old English, so while I know who Beowulf is that's about the extent of my knowledge of the material discussed. But some of the hagiographic material was familiar because I'd read the French Lives of those saints, and gave me a few ideas to follow up. Clark also has a fairly readable style, for an academic -- certainly a lot easier to follow/understand than Judith Butler (I struggled through Gender Trouble earlier this week). This definitely made it easier to get through. So, overall helpful, but I continue my quest to find an equivalent book that is actually looking at the same material as me. (Why is Celtic studies so behind with this ughhh)