What is it about?
Pregnancy and childbirth are considered differently by authors writing in different traditions but at the same moment in time: the fabliaux, Miracles of the Virgin, and pious tales have different but overlapping agendas. The article asks why the topic is treated differently in similar works.
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Why is it important?
It is important because it reveals that, circumstances permitting, sex is allowed and accepted by medieval authors & the world in which they operated. Broadly speaking, sex is part of the humour of the fabliaux, is used for education and entertainment in pious tales, and the promote the sacrament of penance in Miracles of the Virgin.
Perspectives
This is an important article for me. It takes short, readable case studies (rather than examining long difficult texts) and explores a subject about which there are too many idees recues. Sex plays different roles in texts that may well have been written by the same authors. This has proved exciting and an important notion in my future work.
Adrian Tudor
University of Hull
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Concevoir et accoucher dans les fabliaux, les Miracles de la Vierge et les contes pieux, Reinardus Yearbook of the International Reynard Society, January 2000, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/rein.13.15tud.
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