The Body of the Queen: Gender and Rule in the Courtly World, 1500-2000

Published by Berghahn Books 2006

The Body of the Queen

Gender and Rule in the Courtly World, 1500-2000

Edited by: Regina Schulte

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781782386278

Overview
Contents

About this book

How many “bodies” does a queen have? What is the significance of multiple “bodies”? How has the gendered body been constructed and perceived within the context of the European courts during the course of the past five centuries? These are some of the questions addressed in this anthology, a contribution to the ongoing debate provoked by Ernst H. Kantorowicz in his seminal work from 1957, The King’s Two Bodies. On the basis of both textual self-presentations and visual representations a gradual transformation of the queen appears: A sacred/providential figure in medieval and early modern period, an ideal bourgeois wife during the late-18th and 19th Centuries, and a star-like (re-) presentation of royalty during the past century. Twentieth-century mass media has produced the celebrity and film star queens personified by the contested and enigmatic Nefertiti of ancient Egypt, the mysterious Elizabeth (Sisi) of Austria, Grace Kelly as Queen of both Hollywood and Monaco and Romy Schneider as the invented Empress.

Author / Editor information

Regina Schulte’s main fields of research are social and cultural history from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, especially the history of crime, gender and war. She taught Modern History and Gender History at Technical University Berlin, Bochum, Cornell University, and European University Institute Florence. Currently she holds a Chair of Modern and Contemporary History/Gender History at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

Reviews

“This book is a welcome…contribution to the growing literature on queens. That it scrutinizes so many queens in so many different contexts will give this collection broad appeal and make it appropriate reading in university courses devoted to gender and power.” · Francia

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
List of Contributors Publicly Available Download PDF	xii
1. Introduction Regina Schulte Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Constructing the Body Politic
2. How Two Ladies Steal a Crown Horst Wenzel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
3. Elizabeth When a Princess Susan Frye Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
4. Elizabeth through the Looking Glass Louis Montrose Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
5. Royal Flesh, Gender and the Construction of Monarchy Rachel Weil Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
Part II. Transgressing the Body Natural
6. What the King Saw in the Belly of the Beast or How the 103 Lion Got in the Queen Abby E. Zanger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
7. Posterity and the Body of the Princess in German Court 125 Funeral Books Jill Bepler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
8 ‘Madame, Ma Chère Fille’ – ‘Dearest Child’ Regina Schulte Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
Part III. Queens of Modernity
9. Queen Margherita (1851–1926) Catherine Brice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
10. The Double Skin Juliane Vogel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
11. Theatrical Monarchy Bernd Weisbrod Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
12. The Unmanly Emperor Martin Kohlrausch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254
Part IV. Visual Metamorphoses
13. The ‘Berlin’ Nefertiti Bust Claudia Breger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
14. Imagined Queens between Heaven and Hell Alexis Schwarzenbach Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	306
15. Queer Queen Katharina Sykora Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	359

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 336
Keywords: Gender Studies and Sexuality; History (General); Cultural Studies (General)

eBook

Published: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 9781782386278