April Harper | SUNY Oneonta (original) (raw)

Papers by April Harper

Research paper thumbnail of 07.04.12, McCarthy, ed., Love, Sex and Marriage

The Medieval Review, Apr 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of The Ties That Bind

Research paper thumbnail of Images of adultery in twelfth and thirteenth-century Old French literature

This thesis examines literary images of masculinity and femininity, their function and depiction ... more This thesis examines literary images of masculinity and femininity, their function and depiction in marriage roles and homo-social relationships in the context of crisis: wifely adultery. The study is heavily reliant upon vernacular texts, especially Old French works from the twelfth and thirteenth century including works from the genres of romance, lais, fables, and fabliaux. Latin works including historia and prescriptive texts such as customaries, penitentials, etiquette texts and medical and canon law treatises are also used to contextualise themes in the Old French literature. The introduction summarises modern literary and historical criticism concerning sexuality in the Middle Ages. It then discusses the influences of the Church, philosophy, medicine, natural theory and society on medieval definitions of sexuality to contextualise the literature which is focal to this thesis. The following four chapters each consider a single character in the adulterous affair: the adulteress, the husband, the lover and the accuser. The literary images of each character are analysed in detail revealing the diversity of depictions between and also within genres. This enables the identification of medieval sexual constructs, challenging some previous critiques of representations of sexuality in the Middle Ages. The final chapter explores the language by which the sexual act is presented. Furthermore, it shows how language is used and occasionally abused in committing, prosecuting and evading punisliment for adultery and how it can be wielded as a weapon of women. Through the focus of a body of literature rich in depictions of sexuality, this thesis questions the misogynist overtones often attributed to medieval literature. The diversity of images shows that the literature illustrates a wide range of opinions and ideas reflective of the complexity of sexuality in medieval society. I would like to thank my supervisor, John Hudson for his invaluable support over the last four years. Other members of the Department of Medieval History at St Andrews have also given of their time, providing advice and guidance, particularly Rob Bartlett and Simone Macdougall. For their help in teaching me Old French and for specific language advice I would like to thank Clive Sneddon and Norris Lacy. Several others have also contributed greatly to my research and their assistance has made the process not only easier but more enjoyable-1 would therefore like to thank the librarians of the Bibliothèque Nationale and the British Library and above all, the secretaries of the Department of Mediaeval History, Anne Chalmers, and Berta Wales who has been an inspiration and who, in particular, has given support and guidance far exceeding any secretarial duties. I would like to thank Bob and Julie Kerr-my fairy-godpeoplewhose quiet strength and support and unexpected help and generosity saw me through difficult times impossible to enumerate. During the course of my Ph. D., I have been privileged to be part of an active and close postgraduate community: I am thankful to all its members, in particular Angela Montford, Bjorn Weiler, Caroline Proctor, Sumi David and Lindsay Rudge. I would like to thank Michele Mason for long talks, her friendship and her ability to make me smile and Brian Briggs for the good times, bad times and back again. Finally, I would like to thank those people who have constantly come to my aid and given unwavering support by rescuing hard drives, giving advice and offering their support over cups of coffee, pints of Guinness, around campfires, atop Munroes and in canoes: David Green, Iona McCleery and Kris Towson. For peppercorns of knowledge and understated but immeasurable generosity, I would like to thank Angus Stewart. It remains to thank one person in particular-Sally Crumplin. It strikes me that during the course of writing a work that focuses on themes of distrust and betrayal, I have been given the gift of unwavering, unconditional trust, faith and support. For this and all else, I thank her. This thesis is dedicated to my father. He would have claimed not to have understood it, on account of its lack of engine, gears and grease and yet he did all that was in his power to make sure that I could attain my goal, providing endless faith, support and love. I hope that in some way the completion of this work proves that his faith and years of hard work were not in vain and that I am as proud of him and all he did as he was of me.

Research paper thumbnail of Silencing Queens: The Dominated Discourse of Historical Queens in Film

This paper focuses on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern Hollywood film, analyzing why... more This paper focuses on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern Hollywood film, analyzing why medieval queens, specifically Isabella of France, Sibylla of Jerusalem, and Isabel of Castile are frequently silenced in terms of their power, authority, and their very voices in modern film. It explores why medievalism, which has often allowed writers and artists to comment on controversial social and cultural issues has deliberately stripped these women of the power they exercised in the Middle Ages and why, in the creation of romanticized historical narratives, modern film requires a queen that is best seen as a silent shadow of her male counterparts.

Research paper thumbnail of Bodies and Sexuality

Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of The Image of the Female Healer in Western Vernacular Literature of the Middle Ages

Social history of medicine, Mar 25, 2011

... Many thanks must also go to Sumi David, Linsey Hunter, Elizabeth Thomas, Caroline Proctor and... more ... Many thanks must also go to Sumi David, Linsey Hunter, Elizabeth Thomas, Caroline Proctor and Iona McCleery for their time, friendship and generosity in sharing their enthusiasm, ideas and sources. ... 62 Amt 1993, pp. 108–12. ↵63 Broomhall 2004, pp. 54–5. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook

Table of Contents Editors' Introduction Contributors Acknowledgements Early Medieval Historie... more Table of Contents Editors' Introduction Contributors Acknowledgements Early Medieval Histories 1. Ross Balzaretti "Sexuality in late Lombard Italy, c.700-800 AD"2. Dominic Janes "Dangerous deeds and polluting texts: the moral readings and modern reception of the insular penitentials"Saintly Sexualities 3. Joyce E. Salisbury "When Sex Stopped Being a Social Disease: Sex and the Desert Fathers and Mothers"4. Samantha J.E. Riches "Virtue and violence: saints, monsters and sexuality in medieval culture" Consuming Passions5. April Harper "The food of love: illicit feasting, food imagery and adultery in Old French Literature" 6. A. Lynn Martin "The Role of Drinking in the Male Construction of Unruly Women" 7. Caroline Proctor "Between Medicine and Morals: sex in the regimens of Maino de Maineri" Real and Imaginary Kingdoms 8. David Santiuste " 'Puttyng downe and rebuking of Vices': Richard III and the Proclamation for the Reform of Morals" 9. Philip Crispin "Scandal, Malice and the Kingdom of the Bazoche" To the East 10. Hugh Kennedy "Al-Jahiz and the Construction of Homosexuality at the Abbasid Court" 11. Kim M. Phillips " 'They do not know the use of men': The Absence of Sodomy in Medieval Accounts of the Far East" Further Reading Index

Research paper thumbnail of The Image of the Female Healer in Western Vernacular Literature of the Middle Ages

Social History of Medicine, 2011

... Many thanks must also go to Sumi David, Linsey Hunter, Elizabeth Thomas, Caroline Proctor and... more ... Many thanks must also go to Sumi David, Linsey Hunter, Elizabeth Thomas, Caroline Proctor and Iona McCleery for their time, friendship and generosity in sharing their enthusiasm, ideas and sources. ... 62 Amt 1993, pp. 108–12. ↵63 Broomhall 2004, pp. 54–5. ...

Research paper thumbnail of 07.04.12, McCarthy, ed., Love, Sex and Marriage

Research paper thumbnail of Silencing Queens: The Dominated Discourse of Historical Queens in Film

This paper focuses on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern Hollywood film, analyzing why... more This paper focuses on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern Hollywood film, analyzing why medieval queens, specifically Isabella of France, Sibylla of Jerusalem, and Isabel of Castile are frequently silenced in terms of their power, authority, and their very voices in modern film. It explores why medievalism, which has often allowed writers and artists to comment on controversial social and cultural issues has deliberately stripped these women of the power they exercised in the Middle Ages and why, in the creation of romanticized historical narratives, modern film requires a queen that is best seen as a silent shadow of her male counterparts.

Research paper thumbnail of Punishing Adultery: Private Violence, Public Honor, Literature, and the Law

Research paper thumbnail of The Ties That Bind

Research paper thumbnail of Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook

Table of Contents Editors' Introduction Contributors Acknowledgements Early Medieval Historie... more Table of Contents Editors' Introduction Contributors Acknowledgements Early Medieval Histories 1. Ross Balzaretti "Sexuality in late Lombard Italy, c.700-800 AD"2. Dominic Janes "Dangerous deeds and polluting texts: the moral readings and modern reception of the insular penitentials"Saintly Sexualities 3. Joyce E. Salisbury "When Sex Stopped Being a Social Disease: Sex and the Desert Fathers and Mothers"4. Samantha J.E. Riches "Virtue and violence: saints, monsters and sexuality in medieval culture" Consuming Passions5. April Harper "The food of love: illicit feasting, food imagery and adultery in Old French Literature" 6. A. Lynn Martin "The Role of Drinking in the Male Construction of Unruly Women" 7. Caroline Proctor "Between Medicine and Morals: sex in the regimens of Maino de Maineri" Real and Imaginary Kingdoms 8. David Santiuste " 'Puttyng downe and rebuking of Vices': Richard III and the P...

Research paper thumbnail of Images of adultery in twelfth and thirteenth-century Old French literature

Research paper thumbnail of Misdiagnosing medieval medicine

The Middle Ages in Modern Culture

Research paper thumbnail of Bodies and Sexuality

A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages

Research paper thumbnail of April Harper, “Silencing Queens” in Karl Alvestad, Janice North, and Ellie Woodacre eds., Pre-modern Rulers and (Post)modern Viewers: gender, sex and power in popular culture (Palgrave, 2018), 51-68.

Abstract: This paper will focus on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern film and will s... more Abstract: This paper will focus on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern film and will seek to analyse why medieval queens, including Isabella, Sybil, and Eleanor among others, are frequently silenced in terms of their power, authority and their very voices in modern film. It will explore why medievalism, which has often allowed writers and artists to comment on controversial social and cultural issues has, in this case, deliberately stripped these women of the power accorded to them in the Middle Ages and why, in the creation of their neo-medieval, romanticized historical narratives, modern film requires a silent queen. In a scholarship that increasingly emphasize the individuality of the situations of Queens, it is thought provoking that modern representation and interpretation of the roles, and personas of these queens are best seen as silent shadows of their male counterparts. Where culture and history often is taken as an indicatory of the contemporary developments in which they are made, may this paper highlight how the popular medievalism of the film industry is projecting an interpretation that does not fit with the realities of medieval Queenship.

Research paper thumbnail of April Harper “Punishing Adultery: Private Violence, Public Honor, Literature, and the Law,” in Haskins Society Journal 28 (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2017), 167-184.

Haskins Society Journal, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of McCarthy, ed., Love, Sex and Marriage (April Harper)

The Medieval Review, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of "The Food of Love": Illicit Feasting, Food Imagery and Adultery in Old French Literature" in Medieval Sexuality: a Casebook (New York: Taylor and Francis, 2007)pp. 81-97.

Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook, Nov 2007

Research paper thumbnail of 07.04.12, McCarthy, ed., Love, Sex and Marriage

The Medieval Review, Apr 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of The Ties That Bind

Research paper thumbnail of Images of adultery in twelfth and thirteenth-century Old French literature

This thesis examines literary images of masculinity and femininity, their function and depiction ... more This thesis examines literary images of masculinity and femininity, their function and depiction in marriage roles and homo-social relationships in the context of crisis: wifely adultery. The study is heavily reliant upon vernacular texts, especially Old French works from the twelfth and thirteenth century including works from the genres of romance, lais, fables, and fabliaux. Latin works including historia and prescriptive texts such as customaries, penitentials, etiquette texts and medical and canon law treatises are also used to contextualise themes in the Old French literature. The introduction summarises modern literary and historical criticism concerning sexuality in the Middle Ages. It then discusses the influences of the Church, philosophy, medicine, natural theory and society on medieval definitions of sexuality to contextualise the literature which is focal to this thesis. The following four chapters each consider a single character in the adulterous affair: the adulteress, the husband, the lover and the accuser. The literary images of each character are analysed in detail revealing the diversity of depictions between and also within genres. This enables the identification of medieval sexual constructs, challenging some previous critiques of representations of sexuality in the Middle Ages. The final chapter explores the language by which the sexual act is presented. Furthermore, it shows how language is used and occasionally abused in committing, prosecuting and evading punisliment for adultery and how it can be wielded as a weapon of women. Through the focus of a body of literature rich in depictions of sexuality, this thesis questions the misogynist overtones often attributed to medieval literature. The diversity of images shows that the literature illustrates a wide range of opinions and ideas reflective of the complexity of sexuality in medieval society. I would like to thank my supervisor, John Hudson for his invaluable support over the last four years. Other members of the Department of Medieval History at St Andrews have also given of their time, providing advice and guidance, particularly Rob Bartlett and Simone Macdougall. For their help in teaching me Old French and for specific language advice I would like to thank Clive Sneddon and Norris Lacy. Several others have also contributed greatly to my research and their assistance has made the process not only easier but more enjoyable-1 would therefore like to thank the librarians of the Bibliothèque Nationale and the British Library and above all, the secretaries of the Department of Mediaeval History, Anne Chalmers, and Berta Wales who has been an inspiration and who, in particular, has given support and guidance far exceeding any secretarial duties. I would like to thank Bob and Julie Kerr-my fairy-godpeoplewhose quiet strength and support and unexpected help and generosity saw me through difficult times impossible to enumerate. During the course of my Ph. D., I have been privileged to be part of an active and close postgraduate community: I am thankful to all its members, in particular Angela Montford, Bjorn Weiler, Caroline Proctor, Sumi David and Lindsay Rudge. I would like to thank Michele Mason for long talks, her friendship and her ability to make me smile and Brian Briggs for the good times, bad times and back again. Finally, I would like to thank those people who have constantly come to my aid and given unwavering support by rescuing hard drives, giving advice and offering their support over cups of coffee, pints of Guinness, around campfires, atop Munroes and in canoes: David Green, Iona McCleery and Kris Towson. For peppercorns of knowledge and understated but immeasurable generosity, I would like to thank Angus Stewart. It remains to thank one person in particular-Sally Crumplin. It strikes me that during the course of writing a work that focuses on themes of distrust and betrayal, I have been given the gift of unwavering, unconditional trust, faith and support. For this and all else, I thank her. This thesis is dedicated to my father. He would have claimed not to have understood it, on account of its lack of engine, gears and grease and yet he did all that was in his power to make sure that I could attain my goal, providing endless faith, support and love. I hope that in some way the completion of this work proves that his faith and years of hard work were not in vain and that I am as proud of him and all he did as he was of me.

Research paper thumbnail of Silencing Queens: The Dominated Discourse of Historical Queens in Film

This paper focuses on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern Hollywood film, analyzing why... more This paper focuses on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern Hollywood film, analyzing why medieval queens, specifically Isabella of France, Sibylla of Jerusalem, and Isabel of Castile are frequently silenced in terms of their power, authority, and their very voices in modern film. It explores why medievalism, which has often allowed writers and artists to comment on controversial social and cultural issues has deliberately stripped these women of the power they exercised in the Middle Ages and why, in the creation of romanticized historical narratives, modern film requires a queen that is best seen as a silent shadow of her male counterparts.

Research paper thumbnail of Bodies and Sexuality

Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of The Image of the Female Healer in Western Vernacular Literature of the Middle Ages

Social history of medicine, Mar 25, 2011

... Many thanks must also go to Sumi David, Linsey Hunter, Elizabeth Thomas, Caroline Proctor and... more ... Many thanks must also go to Sumi David, Linsey Hunter, Elizabeth Thomas, Caroline Proctor and Iona McCleery for their time, friendship and generosity in sharing their enthusiasm, ideas and sources. ... 62 Amt 1993, pp. 108–12. ↵63 Broomhall 2004, pp. 54–5. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook

Table of Contents Editors' Introduction Contributors Acknowledgements Early Medieval Historie... more Table of Contents Editors' Introduction Contributors Acknowledgements Early Medieval Histories 1. Ross Balzaretti "Sexuality in late Lombard Italy, c.700-800 AD"2. Dominic Janes "Dangerous deeds and polluting texts: the moral readings and modern reception of the insular penitentials"Saintly Sexualities 3. Joyce E. Salisbury "When Sex Stopped Being a Social Disease: Sex and the Desert Fathers and Mothers"4. Samantha J.E. Riches "Virtue and violence: saints, monsters and sexuality in medieval culture" Consuming Passions5. April Harper "The food of love: illicit feasting, food imagery and adultery in Old French Literature" 6. A. Lynn Martin "The Role of Drinking in the Male Construction of Unruly Women" 7. Caroline Proctor "Between Medicine and Morals: sex in the regimens of Maino de Maineri" Real and Imaginary Kingdoms 8. David Santiuste " 'Puttyng downe and rebuking of Vices': Richard III and the Proclamation for the Reform of Morals" 9. Philip Crispin "Scandal, Malice and the Kingdom of the Bazoche" To the East 10. Hugh Kennedy "Al-Jahiz and the Construction of Homosexuality at the Abbasid Court" 11. Kim M. Phillips " 'They do not know the use of men': The Absence of Sodomy in Medieval Accounts of the Far East" Further Reading Index

Research paper thumbnail of The Image of the Female Healer in Western Vernacular Literature of the Middle Ages

Social History of Medicine, 2011

... Many thanks must also go to Sumi David, Linsey Hunter, Elizabeth Thomas, Caroline Proctor and... more ... Many thanks must also go to Sumi David, Linsey Hunter, Elizabeth Thomas, Caroline Proctor and Iona McCleery for their time, friendship and generosity in sharing their enthusiasm, ideas and sources. ... 62 Amt 1993, pp. 108–12. ↵63 Broomhall 2004, pp. 54–5. ...

Research paper thumbnail of 07.04.12, McCarthy, ed., Love, Sex and Marriage

Research paper thumbnail of Silencing Queens: The Dominated Discourse of Historical Queens in Film

This paper focuses on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern Hollywood film, analyzing why... more This paper focuses on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern Hollywood film, analyzing why medieval queens, specifically Isabella of France, Sibylla of Jerusalem, and Isabel of Castile are frequently silenced in terms of their power, authority, and their very voices in modern film. It explores why medievalism, which has often allowed writers and artists to comment on controversial social and cultural issues has deliberately stripped these women of the power they exercised in the Middle Ages and why, in the creation of romanticized historical narratives, modern film requires a queen that is best seen as a silent shadow of her male counterparts.

Research paper thumbnail of Punishing Adultery: Private Violence, Public Honor, Literature, and the Law

Research paper thumbnail of The Ties That Bind

Research paper thumbnail of Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook

Table of Contents Editors' Introduction Contributors Acknowledgements Early Medieval Historie... more Table of Contents Editors' Introduction Contributors Acknowledgements Early Medieval Histories 1. Ross Balzaretti "Sexuality in late Lombard Italy, c.700-800 AD"2. Dominic Janes "Dangerous deeds and polluting texts: the moral readings and modern reception of the insular penitentials"Saintly Sexualities 3. Joyce E. Salisbury "When Sex Stopped Being a Social Disease: Sex and the Desert Fathers and Mothers"4. Samantha J.E. Riches "Virtue and violence: saints, monsters and sexuality in medieval culture" Consuming Passions5. April Harper "The food of love: illicit feasting, food imagery and adultery in Old French Literature" 6. A. Lynn Martin "The Role of Drinking in the Male Construction of Unruly Women" 7. Caroline Proctor "Between Medicine and Morals: sex in the regimens of Maino de Maineri" Real and Imaginary Kingdoms 8. David Santiuste " 'Puttyng downe and rebuking of Vices': Richard III and the P...

Research paper thumbnail of Images of adultery in twelfth and thirteenth-century Old French literature

Research paper thumbnail of Misdiagnosing medieval medicine

The Middle Ages in Modern Culture

Research paper thumbnail of Bodies and Sexuality

A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages

Research paper thumbnail of April Harper, “Silencing Queens” in Karl Alvestad, Janice North, and Ellie Woodacre eds., Pre-modern Rulers and (Post)modern Viewers: gender, sex and power in popular culture (Palgrave, 2018), 51-68.

Abstract: This paper will focus on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern film and will s... more Abstract: This paper will focus on the disempowered queen as portrayed in modern film and will seek to analyse why medieval queens, including Isabella, Sybil, and Eleanor among others, are frequently silenced in terms of their power, authority and their very voices in modern film. It will explore why medievalism, which has often allowed writers and artists to comment on controversial social and cultural issues has, in this case, deliberately stripped these women of the power accorded to them in the Middle Ages and why, in the creation of their neo-medieval, romanticized historical narratives, modern film requires a silent queen. In a scholarship that increasingly emphasize the individuality of the situations of Queens, it is thought provoking that modern representation and interpretation of the roles, and personas of these queens are best seen as silent shadows of their male counterparts. Where culture and history often is taken as an indicatory of the contemporary developments in which they are made, may this paper highlight how the popular medievalism of the film industry is projecting an interpretation that does not fit with the realities of medieval Queenship.

Research paper thumbnail of April Harper “Punishing Adultery: Private Violence, Public Honor, Literature, and the Law,” in Haskins Society Journal 28 (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2017), 167-184.

Haskins Society Journal, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of McCarthy, ed., Love, Sex and Marriage (April Harper)

The Medieval Review, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of "The Food of Love": Illicit Feasting, Food Imagery and Adultery in Old French Literature" in Medieval Sexuality: a Casebook (New York: Taylor and Francis, 2007)pp. 81-97.

Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook, Nov 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook

Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook is a fascinating collection featuring both new and established exp... more Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook is a fascinating collection featuring both new and established experts in the field. The volume includes 11 original essays by Ross Balzaretti, Philip Crispin, Dominic Janes, Hugh Kennedy, A. Lynn Martin, Kim M. Phillips, Samantha J. E. Riches, Joyce E. Salisbury, David Santiuste, and the volume editors, April Harper and Caroline Proctor. The authors explore a variety of sources, contributing work on a diverse range of topics including: sources for sexuality in Late Lombard Italy; the problematic reception of early medieval penitentials by modern readers; sexuality as experienced by the desert fathers and mothers; connections between saints, monsters, and sexuality in medieval art and hagiography; the relationship between food, seduction, and adultery in the fabliaux; sex, alcohol, and the late medieval stereotype of the unruly woman; sex as a medical and moral concern in medieval regimens of health; ideas of sexuality in political discourse; sex and scandal in festive drama; debates on sexual orientation in Arabic court literature; and pre-colonial descriptions of sexuality in the Far East. The volume concludes with a useful selection of further reading.