Premodern Masculinities in Transition

<b>Sheds new light on how masculinity was understood lived performed and viewed during a period of huge change.</b><br><br>Premodern masculinity was multivalent and dynamic a series of intersecting conflicting and mutating identities that nevertheless were distinct and recognizable to people and their societies. The articles collected here examine a variety of means by which masculinity was constructed deconstructed and transformed across time geographies and cultures. Articles range across the twelfth to seventeenth century from western Europe to the Volga-Ural region from the Christian west to the Muslim east from Ottomans to Mongols and Persians from Baudri of Bourgueil to Blaise de Monluc; while topics include the chivalric hero the effeminate man beards and spurs represented variously in literature historical documents and art. Finally in that period of great transformation that is the sixteenth century they show how masculinity moved away from the traditional and recognizable to become something different and distinct from its premodern expressions.