“CREATURES OF LUST, ORNAMENT AND SEDUCTION”

THE FEMININE IN WRITTEN CULTURE IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES

Abstract

Written culture played a crucial role in the representation of the female sex in medieval society, and it persists to this day. This article comes from monograph research and aims to present some of the issues raised in literary works produced in the period between Late Antiquity and the High Middle Ages, which debate female nature and the social role of women. Elements of Christianity, the Church as an institution and the clergy were some of the main factors responsible for propagating the defamatory discourse of female inferiority.