Book Launch of The Male Body and Social Masculinity in Premodern Europe and Patriarchy, Honour, and Violence
Please join us for the release of these two books, both edited by Jacqueline Murray, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and published by the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies.
The essays in Patriarchy, Honour, and Violence interweave varied historical sources, social contexts, interpretative frames, and scholarly interpretations to provide a series of overlapping, reinforcing, and occasionally contradictory perspectives on premodern men and their quest for masculine identity and honour. They explore how in premodern Europe masculinity was demonstrated and contested by men across different social, political, geographic, and religious contexts, revealing how the shared but contentious values of patriarchy and honour were often reinforced or demonstrated through violence. In doing so, they provide a rich foundation for understanding the complexities of premodern masculinities.
Crossing premodern Europe, the essays in The Male Body and Social masculinity in Premodern Europe examine how masculinity was constructed by external presentation, such as hair, musculature, sexual prowess, clothing, and honourable behaviour, or deconstructed through bodily defects such as virginity, impotence, castration, non-normative sexuality, or shameful behaviour. Together, they reveal the fluctuations that men experienced and explore how social and embodied masculinity intersected and could reconstruct or redefine masculinity as social and cultural values modified.
Reception to follow.