| Popis: |
There is a certain irony in the neglect of the subject of single males in later medieval English culture. Scholars have written about men, single and otherwise, for generations. Thus we have studies of bishops, of clergy and members of religious orders, of soldiers and aristocrats, merchants and artisans. Whereas, however, there is a specific and valuable scholarship that focuses on single women, even a recent monograph that explores the cultural construction of the singlewoman, with the exception of Ruth Karras medievalists seem not in general to have thought to consider the parallel category of unmarried men.1 In part this is a corollary of the legal conventions of the day that show concern for a woman’s status in relation to fathers, husbands, etc.2 The same is not so true of adult men. The singlewoman is consequently conspicuous in the records in a way in which the single male, as opposed to simply the male, is not. This prompts the question of how the experience of the single male, that is the younger male who might yet marry, was essentially different from that of the single female. Behind this lie questions concerning ideologies of gender; we cannot really understand ideas of femininity without exploring parallel constructions of masculinity, though my focus is on social practice rather than on the ideology itself. |
