The spectacle of the body in late medieval england. editia a doua/estella antoaneta ciobanu

Why a spectacle of the body? Why not an imaginary of the body or images or perhaps concepts? Even to the lay reader, the two sets - spectacle as a category unto its own versus the remainder, especially the latter two concepts - likely evoke entrenched binaries such as dynamic vs.

static views of the body.

Yet not even at the most abstract conceptual level can the body be pictured as entirely static: medieval discursive practices testify to this much despite their rejection of body dynamics and change, regarded as damaging to spirituality.

As we shall see, the body, whether in a strict biological sense or in metaphorical senses, was for medieval people the phenomenon most clearly anchored in earthly life.