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.