Madeline H. CavinessReframing Medieval Art: |
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Table of Contents: Introduction: Soundings/Sightings Chapter 1: Writing Women: Problematics of History and Language Chapter 3: Hedging in Men and Women: The Margins as Agents of Gender Construction Chapter 4: Edging Out Difference: Revisiting the Margins as a Postmodern Project |
Reader Comments:Pamela Sheingorn: "A thoroughly postmodern and thoroughly
feminist medieval art history, Caviness's book is stunning in its originality.
She succeeds in sometimes juxtaposing, sometimes interweaving three discourses:
traditional art history with its focus on the object; historical context
(though I would problematize that word) to embed the object in its socio-cultural
milieu; and what she calls a theoretical frame . . . to provide genuinely
new readings of objects in their contexts. This is an estremely ambitious
and largely successful effort to rewrite the history of medieval art,
yet Caviness does do by showing, in postmodern fashion, that there is
no such thing as THE history of art. Each of her case studies could stand
alone, or as Caviness suggests, they could be read in any sequence, yet
their cumulative effect is to provide an alternative narrative of medieval
art history because it is read through the lens of gender. Art history,
and especially medieval art history, has lagged behind the other disciplines
in its use of contemporary theory; Caviness's book virtually repositions
the field. It comes at a time when many medieval art historians seem more
open to theoretical approaches, yet hesitant as to where to begin -- this
book will be their model. Other medievalists will read it eagerly, both
because Caviness is well-known both as a first-rate scholar and as a provocative
revisionist and because they are well aware that the field had been waiting
for this kind of rewriting. Though she is tough-minded, Caviness is far
from doctrinaire. She works by a kind of associational thinking that is
both stimulating and challenging. The connections she sees are dazzling,
genuinely striking in their originality. Caviness has accomplished the
enormous task of rethinking a field." Barbara Abou-el-Haj: "This manuscript, which is imbued with
[Caviness's] humor, irony and satire, is an experiment based on a number
of important atticles to which she has added new material and new chapters.
The author has taken key categories of feminist theory and applied them
reciprocally to medieval and modern or postmodern imagery usually, but
not always, accompanied by critical assessments. I have no doubt that
when it is published, this book will attract a broad audience of scholars
from a range of disciplines engaged in feminist debate, research, and
historiography, who are already familiar with the author's publications
and lectures in this area of research. I was especially struck by the
sets of quotes that effectively introduce the issues for each chapter." Please send your comments to: madeline.caviness@tufts.edu ©2000 |