Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Late Medieval Irish Rómánsaíochtai

Abstract

A survey of studies of gender in medieval Irish literature reveals two key observations. First of all, such studies are few and far between; secondly, they are focused on early Irish texts and early (pre-Norman) medieval Ireland.1 Given that the scholastic tide has only recently begun to turn with respect to the interest in gender and sexuality in medieval Ireland, it is unsurprising that the early literature has been the first to benefit from such lines of inquiry. Old Irish and early Middle Irish texts sit at the very beginning of medieval Irish scholarship and consequently have been studied more thoroughly, through both more and less traditional academic approaches. The state of the research on the literature of later medieval Ireland, particularly the traditionally disparaged and neglected rómánsaíochtai [romantic tales], is quite different.KeywordsSweet SpeechSexual PurityFemale SubjectivityFemale DesireMedieval RomanceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.