Queer Iberia: Sexualities, Cultures, and Crossings from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance (Series Q)

Part of an excellent queer studies line from Duke University Press, Queer Iberia sheds light on the neglected topic of sexually diverse behaviors, bodies, and ideas in medieval and early-modern Iberia. The papers were sparked by a poorly attended session at the 1994 International Congress on Medieval Studies that nevertheless gave rise over the next few years to a lively debate among scholars. Israel Burshatin's "Written on the Body" recounts the rise and fall of Eleno de Cespedes, a 16th-century hermaphrodite called before the Toledo Inquisition for the crime of marrying a(nother) woman and thus mocking the sacrament. In "The Semiotics of Phallic Aggression...," Louise Vasvari explores the surprisingly ancient insult of a raised finger, while Sara Lipton probes the polemics of the Albigensian Crusade for tellingly gendered terms in "Tanquam effeminatum." The anthology's 15 playful and penetrating essays--and its unusually fine introduction--should interest Western or Islamic medievalists, or anyone following the fractious debates in the brave new world of gender studies. --Regina Marler