Episode Details

This episode looks at examples of courtly love--both in poetry and in prose--expressed between two women, or by two female characters.

In this episode we talk about:

• The context and conventions of the “courtly love” genre
• The problems of relating the sentiments expressed in courtly love literature to everyday lives and experiences
• Scholarly blind spots when interpreting same-sex expressions of courtly love
• Love, desire, and friendship between women in the 13th century French story L’Escoufle
• The 13th century troubariz (female troubador) Bieiris de Romans and the love poem she wrote to a woman named Maria
• A passionate poem of love and longing written by one anonymous 12th century German woman to another

Books mentioned

• The full text of Na Maria by Bieris de Romans can be found in: Bogin, Meg. 1976. The Women Troubadours. Paddington Press, Ltd., New York. ISBN 0-8467-0113-8
• The full text of the Tegernsee MS poem can be found in: Matter, E. Ann. 1989. “My Sister, My Spouse: Woman-Identified Women in Medieval Christianity” in Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality, eds. Judith Plaskow & Carol P. Christ. Harper & Row, San Francisco.

This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:

• L’Escoufle
• Na Maria (Bieiris de Romans)
• Tegernsee ms

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)