The Reproductive Unconscious in Late Medieval and Early Modern England

Drawing together social and medical history and literary studies, this book shows that medieval and early modern men and women had to negotiate a conflict between opposing cultural ideologies wanting them to procreate and yet remain virginal.

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Drawing together social and medical history and literary studies, The Reproductive Unconscious in Late Medieval and Early Modern England studies the social practices and metaphorical representations of childbirth in medieval and early modern texts and argues for the existence of a reproductive unconscious. Discussing midwifery treatises, obstetrical and gynecological manuals, and devotional texts written for or by women, the author illustrates the ways in which medieval and early modern men and women negotiated a conflict between the ideological and material need of the culture for them to procreate, and an ideological injunction that they remain virginal and non-procreative.