Sex, Scandal, and Sermon in Fourteenth-Century Spain: Juan Ruiz’s Libro de Buen Amor

Product Description


This book is an innovative study of humour and the body in Juan Ruiz's Libro de Buen Amor (1330), using modern analytical techniques to examine the place of the Libro's bawdy and grotesque in relation to secular and sacred culture.


Review


"I must admit that my own misreading does not even begin to do justice to the far-reaching, academic brilliance ensconced between the two covers of this work for which one can only beg the author s forgiveness along with the reader s understanding and encourage the reading of this work for oneself." - Medieval Feminist Forum
"This outstanding monograph, by the author and editor of A Companion to the Libro de Buen Amor, is informed both by contemporary theory and by a secure grounding in the ecclesiastical and literary traditions of the Middle Ages. Haywood studies the body, the gaze, and the comedic role of the authorial voice, in a volume which should become a new classic of Libro de Buen Amor studies." - Dorothy Severin, University of Liverpool
"As the first attempt in a very long time to formulate a comprehensive interpretation and understanding of this fiendishly rich and difficult work, Haywood's book is filled with provocative insights and abundant new observations . . . Haywood's close readings of the text, whether they discover orthodoxy or depravity, never stray from the fact that, at its heart, the Libro is a book that rehearses the Christian struggle between the material and spiritual world." - Speculum


About the Author


Louise M. Haywood is Senior University Lecturer in Medieval Spanish Studies, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. She is the author of "Historia troyana polimetrica," the editor of "Culture Contexts/Female Voices," and the co-editor of "A Companion to the "Libro de Buen Amor, with Louise O. Vasvari.