Sex and Sexuality in Anglo-Saxon England: Essays in Memory of Daniel Gillmore Calder by Carol Braun Pasternack, Lisa M. C. Weston, Daniel Gillmore Calder

Abstract

476 Reviews might constitute Europeanness, are at theheart of the book. Almost inevitably, there is some variation in thequality of the contributions, and one notes a tendency togive excessive detail about the filmic text (in the essay of Stan Jones, for example), and more generally at times a failure to appraise more fully the cinematic qualities of the selected material, such as choice of shot or detail ofmise en scene. The editors are clearly aware of the need to strive foroverall coherence, and thus the essays are divided into categories such as 'Gendering theOther' and 'Engaging with thePast'. Other editorial strategies are less satisfactory,however. Some authors are allowed over-lengthy quotations. All essays list references at the conclusion but, astonishingly, the references do not include a filmography.There is a proliferation of footnotes that include additional and developmental material more appropriate to the main text. In Frank Leinen's contribution some pages contain almost more footnote than text, and without doubt this overwhelms themain thrust of the piece. This is themost extreme, though by no means the only example. The book contains essays thatwill be of considerable value to an advanced course on European cinema, but it is a pity that itsoverall high quality ismarred by theseweaknesses in the editing. QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PAULINE SMALL Sex and Sexuality inAnglo-Saxon England: Essays inMemory ofDaniel Gillmore Calder. Ed. by CAROL BRAUN PASTERNACKand LISAM. C. WESTON. (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 277) Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2004. xlix+284pp. $40; ?36. ISBN 978-o-86698 320-4. As well as gender and sexuality, the essays in thisvolume show a recurrent interest in issues such as lexicalmeaning and the relation between thediscourses of thepast and present. The editors' introduction (pp. xix-xlix) reviews earlier work on medieval attitudes towards sexuality, noting the absence of any previous collection concerned exclusively with Anglo-Saxon England (p. xlii), and summarizes the papers that fol low.The essays themselves are divided into three sections, beginning with those that address 'Same-Sex Acts and Desires: Systems ofMeaning'. R. D. Fulk's 'Male Homoeroticism in theOld English Canons of Theodore' (pp. i 34) questions the assumption thathomosexuality, as an identity rather than a forbid den act, emerges in the nineteenth century. Fulk suggests thatOld English ba?dling (usually translated 'effeminateperson') 'designated anOther' (p. 29), therebydefining a homoerotic identity in away not found inother languages before the modern era. In 'Sanctimoniales cumSanctimoniale: Particular Friendships and Female Community in Anglo-Saxon England' (pp. 35-62), Lisa M. C. Weston discusses the representation ofmonastic women bymale writers, such as Bede. She finds that theyexhibit anxiety about female relationships, and seek to regulate them by emphasizing the importance of community over exclusive, secretive friendships that may give rise to sinful desires. Kathy Lavezzo ends this section with 'Gregory's Boys: The Homoerotic Production of English Whiteness' (pp. 63-90), arguing that IElfric's account of Pope Gregory's encounter with the slave boys, like a laterVictorian version, engages with images of male-male desire in the construction and celebration of aChristian English identity. The second section, 'Sexualities of theVirgin and the (Virgin) Mother', begins with Carol Braun Pasternack's 'The Sexual Practices ofVirginity and Chastity in Aldhelm's De Virginitate' (pp. 93-120). Pasternack believes Aldhelm's aim is topro mote virginity as a passionate yet virtuous sexual identity, inwhich desire is con strained by being directed towards Christ and theChurch. In 'Maternal Sexuality on the Ruthwell Cross' (pp. I21-46) Mary Dockray-Miller also presents a rather MLR, I02.2, 2007 477 different image of sexuality: the emotional, physical, and therefore erotic maternal desires which are, she argues, the focus of theRuthwell depictions ofMary. The final section deals with 'Sex, Violence, and theNation'. Shari Horner ana lyses 'The Language of Rape inOld English Literature and Law: Views from the Anglo-Saxon(ist)s' (pp. I49-8 I). She challenges the standard dictionary definitions, and concludes that the regulation of sexual violence inAnglo-Saxon texts informs a broader definition of physical, social, and spiritual identity. In 'Embodying Christ, Embodying Nation: 'Elfric's Accounts of Saints Agatha and Lucy' (pp. I83-202) Andrea Rossi-Reder uses...