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Sheela/Sirith-na-Gig:
Between Apotropaic Femininity and Misogyny in Fablaux.
1. Fabliaux amour vilain as opposed to the amour courtois of romances
It is the representation of the body, and more precisely the deflection of the proper
transformed into story, that constitutes the eroticism of the fabliaux.
R. Howard Bloch, The Scandal of the Fabliaux, 1986
" Humorous tales originating in 12th c. France.
" the term fabliau evolved from thirteenth-century Picardian word fablel/fabliaus,
ultimately derived from Latin fabula story, narrative.
" very popular - about one hundred and fifty recorded fabliaux in French.
" their main components, based on carnivalesque humour involve slapstick comedy and
a play with social and moral hierarchies;
" related to the sphere of the body and to the marginal element of society;
" often take the guise of an exemplum, but are all jocular;
" varied audiences enjoyed both among the upper and lower strata of the society
" fabliau authors mainly the so-called vagantes or clercs errants, wandering scholars,
otherwise known also as goliards, some of whom might have been declassed and
placed on society s periphery.
Tony Davenport, Medieval Narrative, 2004; Stephen L. Wailes, Vagantes and the Fabliaux, 1974
2. Medieval views on concupiscentia, the sexual desire whether the enjoyment in the
thought of fornication is sinful already.
It must be noted that, since every pleasure is consequent on some activity & any
pleasure can be related to two items, namely to the activity on which it is consequent
and to the object in which one takes pleasure. & In this way, then, a person who is
thinking about fornication can take pleasure in two things, either in the thinking
[potentiality] or in the fornicating [actuality] the person is thinking of.
Thus even though thinking itself is not a mortal but a mere venial sin, the pleasure
taken in the act of fornication itself is & a mortal sin.
St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, vol.12, VIII.5.3
3. An example of a fabliau: Du Chevalier qui fist les cons parler (The knight who made
cunts speak), anonymous 13th c. Anglo-Norman version, ca 480 lines, translated by Robert
Hellman and Richard O'Gorman.
[& ] from answering There's you reward.
So says Garin, who never lies, You may be sure no you if you but deign
and who in this story will indite to speak to it. king or lord
the adventures of a certain knight has such a gift." The knight grew red
who had a truly remarkable talent, with shame; he thought the girl was mad.
for he could make cunts speak, this gallant,
and conjure arseholes from all parts [& ]
to answer his summons by magic arts. "In faith, that doesn't displease me a bit,"
he said, and by way of proving it
[& ] he embraced her and kissed her mouth and cheek
The second followed the tall one and felt her breasts that were pretty and sleek.
and said: "Sir knight, my gift's no small one: The to touch her cunt the knight made free
wherever you go, west or east, and said: "Sir cunt, now speak to me!
you shall not find a maid or a beast, I would know how your mistress came by my side."
so she have two eyes, whose cunt can refrain "My lord," said the cunt, "there's nothing I'd hide;
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the countess sent the maid in her stread with the cotton my mistress had crammed down my
to bring you pleasure and joy abed. throat."
The count laughed loud, and all his men
[& ] laughed at the joke again and again,
The knight called the cunt and asked it why and told the countess she'd lost; it were best
at his first call it would not reply. she say no more, but make peace with her guest
Said the cunt: "I could not, I was so choked
.
3. Subversiveness as the foundation of the form of fabliau but subversiveness controlled
by the genre and controlled socially.
a. Women on top as the frequent focus of this subversiveness:
" often grotesque femininity (not only physically grotesque);
" in medieval context one of the grotesque elements would be the dominance of
women, both physical and intellectual;
" the power of women in fabliaux.
4. Building upon this subversiveness: a connection between women represented in fabliaux
and certain very specific representations of femininity, located literally on top of
churches and castles (in the British Isles, but poss. Anglo-Norman influence; arriving from the
continent Spain and France).
a. the sheela-na-gigs, also called Julia the Giddy, the Girl of the Paps, the
Whore, the Idol, Freya or the Devil Stone.
b. Sheela-na-gig poss. the old hag of the breast , the hag on her hunkers
c. This is perhaps precarious - I do not claim that the figures are key to the
understanding of fabliaux women, but they are some form of reflection of
manifold medieval approaches to femininity.
What are the sheela-figures?
a. unclear and conjectural - various forms (maidens, mothers, crones) and often
older carvings placed upon newer constructions.
b. pagan survival? Related to Celtic sovereignty goddesses?
c. Fertility goddess (position for labour)? some show evidence of rubbing in the
genital area (with objects).
d. Apotropaic: function of warding off evil? Lightening? Demons?
e. Least romantic, most probable: Representation of the sin of lust (on corbel
stones) brought to British Isles from Romanesque churches on the continent?
f. But the above couldn t have been related to castles apotropaic there?
Representations of women/femininity in thed so-called "Baubo position:
" fertility cult?
" apotropaic roles?
" warning against the dangers of lust?
" medieval mockery of the apparent feminine inclination toward promiscuity?
5. Athropomorphic figures from Boa Island, co. Fermanagh, Ireland. Badhbha? Megalithic
Celtic idols? Early Christian period (ca. 400 AD)?
Badhbha, Macha and the Morrígan were a trio of goddesses known as the Mórrígna
"Great Queens", the goddess(es) of war.
"Fear and dislike of women may, however, sometimes have accompanied this
recognition of female power, including their alleged unnatural powers, and this may
have helped to bring about the duality of the goddess/ hag figures."
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JÅ‚rgen Andersen, The Witch on the Wall. Medieval Erotic Sculpture in the British Isles
(Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1977), p. 94.
6. Spatial and temporal location of the Sheela figures may relate them to the context of
mediaval fabliaux:
a. Dates: Most of the buildings where they are located are dated to early
12th/13th c. (though they may be older)
b. The production of Sheelas in Irland and England ceases with the Reformation;
c. Fabliaux likewise declined around then, survived until 15th c., then was
transformed into obscene oral stories and obscene humour;
d. Locations of sheelas churches, castles (poss. apotropaic protection from
evil eye, lightening);
e. Subversiveness of locations (like subversiveness of fabliaux) mocking the
strata of power and hierarchy.
f. Margins: margins of buildings (sometimes figures are hard to spot corbel
stones, quoins) and of manuscripts (fabliaux);
g. Moreover Sheelas are located on less prominent castles and churches.
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