Home/
Of Giants: Sex, Monsters, and the Middle Ages Volume 17
Of Giants: Sex, Monsters, and the Middle Ages Volume 17
No customer reviews yet
ISBN 9780816632176
Considers what monsters tell us about identity in the medieval period.
A monster lurks at the heart of medieval identity, and this book seeks him out. Reading a set of medieval texts in which giants and dismemberment figure prominently, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen brings a critical psychoanalytic perspective to bear on the question of identity formation-particularly masculine identity-in narrative representation. The giant emerges here as an intimate stranger, a monster who stands at the limits of selfhood.
Arguing that in the romance tradition of late fourteenth-century England, identity is inscribed on sexed bodies only through the agency of a monster, Cohen looks at the giant as the masculine body writ large. In the giant he sees an uncanny figure, absolutely other and curiously familiar, that serves to define the boundaries of masculine embodiment. Philosophically compelling, the book is also a philologically rigorous inquiry into the phenomenon of giants and giant-slaying in various texts from the Anglo-Saxon period to late Middle English, including Beowulf, Chrétien de Troyes's The Knight and the Lion, Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, several works by Chaucer, Sir Gowther, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and more.A significant contribution to our understanding of medieval culture, Of Giants also provides surprising insights into questions about the psychosocial work of representation in its key location for the individual: the construction of gender and the social formation of the boundaries of gender identification. It will engage students of the Middle Ages as well as those interested in discourses of the body, social identity, and the grotesque. ISBN 0-8166-3216-2 Cloth £00.00 $47.95xxISBN 0-8166-3217-0 Paper £00.00 $18.95x240 Pages 5 black-and-white photos 5 7/8 x 9 MayMedieval Cultures Series, volume 17Translation inquiries: University of Minnesota PressAbout the author
Product details
Pub dateMay 1, 1999
ISBN-100816632170
ISBN-139780816632176
LanguageEnglish
Last updated 2026-03-18 07:28
$32.07
In stock soon — order now to reserve your copy
Delivery by Monday, September 14, 2026
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Fast checkout
Pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay when available.
Payment received
We are registering your order now. Please stay on this page while we redirect you to the confirmation page.
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.
Readers who bought this also bought
More from Europe - Medieval