Virtue and Venom traces the history of a previously neglected genre, the catalog of women, from its origins in Greece and Rome to the late Middle Ages, revealing the catalogs' considerable importance as cultural documents of the evolution of the Western definition of womankind. These catalogs were simple listings of past heroines, sometimes described in extended biographies, sometimes merely enumerated by name. Catalog heroines often appeared in familiar guises--anonymous mothers of great men, fascinating seductresses, ...
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Virtue and Venom traces the history of a previously neglected genre, the catalog of women, from its origins in Greece and Rome to the late Middle Ages, revealing the catalogs' considerable importance as cultural documents of the evolution of the Western definition of womankind. These catalogs were simple listings of past heroines, sometimes described in extended biographies, sometimes merely enumerated by name. Catalog heroines often appeared in familiar guises--anonymous mothers of great men, fascinating seductresses, self-effacing spouses, abused victims of love, strong and brilliant achievers. Written by some of the finest authors of the ages, the catalogs fulfilled important functions. By defining women typologically, they instilled stereotypes in the popular mind, and by illustrating proper and improper feminine conduct they reinforced the late medieval link between literature and ethics. Despite the repetitive form of the genre, the catalogs were extremely flexible, able to illustrate different, even antithetical views of femininity--invoking the past as authority or reinterpreting the past in an attempt to associate femininity with changing cultural values. Thus, as well as being the vehicle for the transmission of knowledge, the form could also be manipulated to contest authority, in the guise of invoking it, and present new paradigms. Glenda McLeod examines a host of catalogs, including those of Homer, Hesiod, Vergil, Ovid, Juvenal, Plutarch, St. Jerome, and Jean de Meun, but gives special attention to Boccaccio's De claris mulieribus and Chaucer's Legend of Good Women. She then shows how the tradition ultimately produced the first major defense of womankind in Christine de Pizan's Cit??? des Dames. This book will be of interest to classicists, medievalists, Renaissance and feminist scholars, and anyone interested in the misogynist tradition in the West and the response it engendered.
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Add this copy of Virtue and Venom: Catalogs of Women From Antiquity to to cart. $9.06, very good condition, Sold by Midtown Scholar Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Harrisburg, PA, UNITED STATES, published 1992 by University of Michigan Press.
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Very Good. Size: 6x1x9; Hardcover. Ex-Library with usual markings: catalogue sticker on cover and spine, stamps on page edges, bookplate inside front cover. NO DUST JACKET. Text is clean and unmarked. Covers show very minor shelf wear. Binding tight, hinges strong. AN EXCELLENT READING OR REFERENCE COPY.; 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! Ships same or next business day!
Add this copy of Virtue and Venom Catalogs of Women From Antiquity to to cart. $19.00, very good condition, Sold by Ancient World Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Toronto, ON, CANADA, published 1992 by University of Michigan Press.
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Add this copy of Virtue and Venom: Catalogs of Women From Antiquity to to cart. $15.00, very good condition, Sold by Chaparral Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Portland, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1991 by University of Michigan Press.
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Very Good in Very Good jacket. Size: 8x5x1; The binding is tight, corners sharp. Light foxing on edges of text block. Text and images unmarked. The dust jacket shows some light handling, in a mylar cover.
Add this copy of Virtue and Venom: Catalogs of Women from Antiquity to to cart. $35.31, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 1991 by University of Michigan Press.
Add this copy of Virtue and Venom: Catalogs of Women From Antiquity to to cart. $54.95, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1991 by University of Michigan Press.
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