ipl-logo

Carolingian World Book Review

810 Words4 Pages

Book Review Valerie Garver’s book titled Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World, examines the lives of Carolingian women, primarily elite, and how they are seen by others. Her work is set up to examine just how women were able to actively shape the culture of the Carolingian time period. The chapters are broken into four main themes to understand, being beauty, family, prudence and wealth. Garver also adds a chapter at the end that showcases textile work produced from women of the time. Through the use of themes and numerous textual evidence, Garver is able to drive her points across to the reader. Just by looking at each chapter, one could find countless examples of how Garver is able to produce evidence for what she is analyzing. …show more content…

A reader is presented with this marvelous descriptions, but a picture of that person, church or memorial would only help in the understanding. She does however provide pictorial evidence of the textile work of these women. Although the majority of the book talks about the elite women, when Garver adds the last chapter about the textile work, she gives life to the women who created the pieces. In the text, she writes “women of low and servile status performed the bulk of textile work,… and women of high social status almost certainly directed much of that work”. It is clear that these elite women didn’t do these works, but women in general were able to produce these crafts. I think it is safe to say that the reason for adding in the last chapter is to shine a light on all women of that time period. On page 247, Garver shows a large embroidered piece. The piece is created with patterned silk, tablet-woven bands and elaborate embroidery. This is one of the few pictorial evidence that Garver showcases and rightfully so. Although the picture is black and white, you can still get a sense of what the colors might have been and just how thorough the work is. I still do wish that there had been more pictures to show what she is explaining throughout the text, but can only image getting and finding well documented illustrations from this time period could be

Show More
Related
1027 Words | 5 Pages

Natalie Zemon Davis highlights Bertrande’s role in The Return of Martin Guerre. In doing so, she explores the little regarded world of female peasantry. Bertrande is a woman with two seemingly contradictory desires in life: a desire for independence and a desire to uphold her reputation as a virtuous woman (28). In a medieval society where womanly virtue is based off of obedience to the males in one’s life, these desires appear contradictory; independence in a woman is dangerous because she will be prone to disobedience, and disobedience would stain her appearance of womanly virtue.

Read More
1023 Words | 5 Pages

Elizabeth Fenn wrote Encounters at the Heart of the World because she wanted to tell the story of the Mandan people. Her goal was to tell a history story without focusing on telling it from a European perspective which typically focus on traditional settings such as the east coast when describing historical accounts of the United States. This book emphasizes the importance of the Mandan and how they were an important yet obscure part of American history. Fenn wants readers to know and care about the Mandan because it is a story about people, movement and interaction. In addition Fenn’s story challenges the perception of Indigenous people all over America and it allows the reader to get historical summary of important events while viewing

Read More
1231 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the 15th century through the 17th century the status of women is exemplified to be that of a subordinate position through the readings of “The Passion of Artemisia” by Susan Vreeland, McKay textbook chapter 13 reading and the DBQ “Did Women Have a Renaissance”. Traditional societal values and ideals, blinded many to the accomplishments and potential of females and continued to perpetuate a culture that valued and identified women with domestic work and motherhood. The institutionalized ignorance and ingrained bias of society helped to propel forward the systematic oppression of women whos minute sphere of influence equaled to less political power and property ownership. Subjected to violence, ridicule, discrimination and

Read More
86 Words | 1 Pages

In her article, “Three Inventories, Three Households”, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich argues that women’s work was crucial not simply for subsistence but that “women were essentials in the seventeenth century for the very same reasons they are essentials today-for the perpetuation of the race” (Ulrich 51). She believes, women were expected to do everything. They were not only to take care of the children, but they were also cook, clean, raise the greens and ranches. Mainly, women plays important role for the survival and continuation of life.

Read More
615 Words | 3 Pages

The next chapter highlights the gendered division of labor and the difficulty to keep a family as a slave. Chapter six and seven moves on to the eighteenth century and shows how women have improved in areas such as more political participation and increasing social class of

Read More
1345 Words | 6 Pages

In a time where social strictures denied most women a future in the field of visual arts, Harriet Hosmer defied all social convention with her large scale success in neoclassical sculpting. At a young age, Hosmer had already developed a striking reputation, one that qualified her to study abroad in Rome under the tutelage of renowned sculptor John Gibson. As if this opportunity wasn’t rare enough for women artists in her day, Hosmer’s outstanding potential earned her the luxury of studying from live models.6 The respect she gained from taking this unconventional route to her success is one that entirely transformed society’s perception of women. Not only did her unique story serve as a catalyst in the progression of gender equality, but she also hid symbolic messages within each of her sculptures to find a way to penetrate her beliefs of equality through to any soul.3 As the National Museum of Women in the Arts perfectly captures, “[s]he preferred Neoclassical idealism to more naturalistic trends and rendered mythological and historical figures, such as Oenone, Beatrice Cenci, and Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, with nobility and grandeur.

Read More
1449 Words | 6 Pages

As such, lower class women were likely more subordinated because of their affiliation to the domestic sphere, and their inability to enter the public domain. The difference in the status in relation to women’s domestic lives are shown in the Mrs. Minnie Wright character, being subjected to scrutiny and oppression by George Henderson, suggesting that she is an “unfit housewife” (Glaspell 180). The point also made here is that women were said to be the “queen of the castle”. George Henderson’s criticism of Mrs. Minnie Wright’s housekeeping skills suggests she could in no way have been queen of the castle and be subjected to such criticism. The observation of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters’ comments about Mrs. Wright was one of empathy, and relational, by responding to the men about the tediousness associated with cleaning a house and operating a “farm” (Glaspell

Read More
1391 Words | 6 Pages

Submissive Women Women, for the longest time, have been under men in the social hierarchy, society, and in politics. Even now, it is thought that women are under men in certain circumstances, but in the 19th century it was very different from now. “The Birthmark” shows a good example of how women were thought of back then. Georgiana, wife to Aylmer, is that example. Based on 19th century standards, Georgiana is the exemplar of a successful wife, based on her obsequiousness.

Read More
906 Words | 4 Pages

In colonial North America, the lives of women were distinct and described in the roles exhibited in their inscriptions. In this book, Good Wives the roles of woman were neither simple nor insignificant. Ulrich proves in her writing that these women did it all. They were considered housewives, deputy husbands, mistresses, consorts, mothers, friendly neighbors, and last but not least, heroines. These characteristics played an important role in defining what the reality of women’s lives consisted of.

Read More
2250 Words | 9 Pages

Women of the Medieval Times Women have always had a significant role in history even though they were treated horrible in most cases. During the Medieval Times was really the first time women were allowed to become more than just a house wife. The fight for equality has always been a struggle and even in today’s society is still an ongoing battle. Although women of lower and middle class were treated poorly in the Medieval Times, some powerful women held great responsibility and were looked up too by both men and children; despite being admired, “men were thought to be not only physically stronger but more emotionally stable, more intelligent, and morally less feeble” (Hopkins 5). “The position of women in the Medieval Society was greatly influenced by the views of the Roman Catholic Church” (Heeve).

Read More
1333 Words | 6 Pages

Beowulf and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” are both narratives in which gender acts as an important theme within their individual communities; both have underlying meanings when it comes to defining what the role men and women in a good community should be. Or in other words, both stories paint a vivid picture of the role of women during the medieval time period, by suggesting that one gender had more power over another. However, these two narratives take alternative paths when expressing their views; Beowulf conveys its message through what is missing, while “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” incorporates satire and uses explicit narrative when telling the experience of a woman that is highly different from other women in her time. Furthermore, another difference that is appealing to the reader’s eyes, besides the way the two narratives reflect to women’s role in medieval times, is that men become the hero in Beowulf, while “the wife”, so a woman, becomes the authority figure in the story of “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” I want to first introduce the two main differences between the two narratives and then I will explain how regardless of the differences, both of these narratives’ main goal is to show that women had less power and a good community back that time was male dominated.

Read More
1400 Words | 6 Pages

As Simone de Beauvoir said that '' one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman''. As we can see, in this periods, male-dominated authorities rendered/defined women in a way how they want for their own interests. Briefly, women were defined/created by men rather than nature which in turn creates a critical question that is what was the women in Early Modern Europe? Wives, mother, daughter, sister; nun, heretic, saint, witch, bitch; queen, martyr, seeker and so forth.

Read More
3874 Words | 16 Pages

Some women were profoundly respected, whether as representatives of effective families, or for their age, intelligence and wisdom. There is no evidence that women' capacities were questioned in the pre-Christian period, and their relationship with wisdom and enchantment was outstanding. Their connections with both nature and the otherworldly were a wellspring of

Read More
653 Words | 3 Pages

In the essay, "Did Women have a Renaissance?”, Joan Kelly-Gadol, presents a feminist insight into women's role in society during the Renaissance and how women did not have a Renaissance. While Margaret L. King, who wrote, “Women and High Power”, offers the roles of women and learning from 1300-1800 and argues that women did . The question of, “did women benefit from the Renaissance?”, is an extremely loaded question. Like every argument or question there are two sides to every story. One way, like Margaret L. King to look at this argument is that women experienced the Renaissance just like men did.

Read More
603 Words | 3 Pages

Beauty, grace, riches, and obedience all exemplify the qualities of the proper women in medieval

Read More

More about Carolingian World Book Review

Related Topics

Open Document