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Introduction

Women’s Genealogies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

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Summary

Genealogy, as depicted in medieval texts and images, is an expansive concept that extends beyond the male-oriented model of patrilineage and includes various approaches to matrilineage and women’s legacies. Because genealogy is always constructed, regardless of how much writers insist on its naturalness, literary sources are key to revealing the imaginative ways medieval writers and their patrons conveyed women-oriented narratives. Through an overview of medieval sources and recent scholarship, this chapter opens up the medieval notion of genealogy to show how it both included female characters and drew upon characteristics typical of elite women’s lives. The Introduction presents three features frequently associated with and useful for understanding women’s genealogies: a close relationship between lineage and material textuality, the importance of manuscript context, and mobile notions of time and geography. Analyses of an aristocratic matrilineal diagram and an excerpt of the Anglo-Norman family romance Fouke le Fitz Waryn illustrate these features.

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Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination
Matrilineal Legacies in the High Middle Ages
, pp. 1 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Introduction
  • Emma O. Bérat
  • Book: Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination
  • Online publication: 14 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009434720.002
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  • Introduction
  • Emma O. Bérat
  • Book: Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination
  • Online publication: 14 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009434720.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Emma O. Bérat
  • Book: Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination
  • Online publication: 14 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009434720.002
Available formats
×