{"product_id":"sea-of-silk-a-textile-geography-of-womens-work-in-medieval-french-literature-hardback-9780812241549","title":"Sea of Silk; A Textile Geography of Women's Work in Medieval French Literature (Hardback) 9780812241549","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eSea of Silk\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eA Textile Geography of Women's Work in Medieval French Literature\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eE. Jane Burns (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812241549\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 11 May 2009\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e272 pages, 25 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.576 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"Burns shifts our focus from questions of the consumption of silk to those of its production and circulation; in so doing, she weaves a gendered history of the role this luxury textile has played in the social and libidinal economy of cultural exchange.\" (Sharon Kinoshita, University of California, Santa Cruz)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe story of silk is an old and familiar one, a tale involving mercantile travel and commercial exchange along the broad land mass that connects ancient China to the west and extending eventually to sites on the eastern Mediterranean and along sea routes to India. But if we shift our focus from economic histories that chart the exchange of silk along Asian and Mediterranean trade routes to medieval literary depictions of silk, a strikingly different picture comes into view. In Old French literary texts from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, emphasis falls on production rather than trade and on female protagonists who make, decorate, and handle silk.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eSea of Silk\u003c\/i\u003e maps a textile geography of silk work done by these fictional women. Situated in northern France and across the medieval Mediterranean, from Saint-Denis to Constantinople, from North Africa to Muslim Spain, and even from the fantasy realm of Arthurian romance to the historical silkworks of the Norman kings in Palermo, these medieval heroines provide important glimpses of distant economic and cultural geographies. E. Jane Burns argues, in brief, that literary portraits of medieval heroines who produce and decorate silk cloth or otherwise manipulate items of silk outline a metaphorical geography that includes France as an important cultural player in the silk economics of the Mediterranean.\u003cbr\u003e Within this literary sea of silk, female protagonists who \"work\" silk in a variety of ways often deploy it successfully as a social and cultural currency that enables them to traverse religious and political barriers while also crossing lines of gender and class.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction. Sea of Silk: A Textile Geography\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. Women and Silk: Remapping the Silk Routes from China to France\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. Women Silk Workers from King Arthur's France to King Roger's Palermo (Yvain ou Le Chevalier au lion)\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. Women Working Silk from Constantinople to Lotharingia (Le Dit de l'Empereur Constant, Le Roman de la Rose ou de Guillaume de Dole)\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. Following Two \"Ladies of Carthage\" from Tyre to North Africa and Spain to France (Le Roman d'EnÉas, Aucassin et Nicolette)\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. Women Mapping a Silk Route from Saint-Denis to Jerusalem and Constantinople (Le PÈlerinage de Charlemagne)\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6. Silk Between virgins: Following a Relic from Constantinople to Chartres\u003cbr\u003e Glossary\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Works Cited\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52676644962584,"sku":"9780812241549","price":44.46,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/sea-of-silk-a-textile-geography-of-womens-work-in-medieval-french-literature-hardback-9780812241549","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}