Negotiating Childlessness in the Middle Ages

This book examines the ways in which people wrote about and engaged with infertility in the German Middle Ages. Striking differences emerge across the vernacular stories, legends, and romances concerned. For some, childlessness is a huge problem, for others, a high ideal. Regina Toepfer considers th...

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Autor principal: Toepfer, Regina
Format: Online
Idioma:anglès
Publicat: Arc Humanities Press 2025
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Accés en línia:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/97214
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author Toepfer, Regina
author_browse Toepfer, Regina
author_facet Toepfer, Regina
author_sort Toepfer, Regina
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This book examines the ways in which people wrote about and engaged with infertility in the German Middle Ages. Striking differences emerge across the vernacular stories, legends, and romances concerned. For some, childlessness is a huge problem, for others, a high ideal. Regina Toepfer considers the reasons for these differences, and how ideas changed over the period, revealing different narrative patterns that shape stories of childlessness right up to the present day. These range from the late fulfilment of the longing to have children, assisted by divine or demonic help; through social and religious alternatives to parenthood; to the conscious decision to remain childless and achieve happiness through partnership alone. Bringing German source material to an English readership for the first time, this book provides fresh insights on childlessness that engage with current debates about sperm donation, adoption, and being childfree.
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language eng
publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
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publisher Arc Humanities Press
publisherStr Arc Humanities Press
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1501212025-07-21T15:43:57Z Negotiating Childlessness in the Middle Ages Toepfer, Regina Infertility in the Middle Ages; medieval women; thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history This book examines the ways in which people wrote about and engaged with infertility in the German Middle Ages. Striking differences emerge across the vernacular stories, legends, and romances concerned. For some, childlessness is a huge problem, for others, a high ideal. Regina Toepfer considers the reasons for these differences, and how ideas changed over the period, revealing different narrative patterns that shape stories of childlessness right up to the present day. These range from the late fulfilment of the longing to have children, assisted by divine or demonic help; through social and religious alternatives to parenthood; to the conscious decision to remain childless and achieve happiness through partnership alone. Bringing German source material to an English readership for the first time, this book provides fresh insights on childlessness that engage with current debates about sperm donation, adoption, and being childfree. 2025-01-21T05:37:18Z 2025-01-21T05:37:18Z 2025-01-15T13:39:26Z 2025 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/97214 9781802702446 9781802703139 9781802703115 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/150121 eng Borderlines open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/97214/1/9781802703122.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/97214/1/9781802703122.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/97214/1/9781802703122.pdf Arc Humanities Press 10.1353/book.131009  10.1353/book.131009  10.1353/book.131009  10.1353/book.131009  f13fc637-eaa8-4720-b1fa-dafaccb9c6d2 9781802702446 9781802703139 9781802703115 238 Leeds open access
spellingShingle Infertility in the Middle Ages; medieval women;
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history
Toepfer, Regina
Negotiating Childlessness in the Middle Ages
title Negotiating Childlessness in the Middle Ages
title_full Negotiating Childlessness in the Middle Ages
title_fullStr Negotiating Childlessness in the Middle Ages
title_full_unstemmed Negotiating Childlessness in the Middle Ages
title_short Negotiating Childlessness in the Middle Ages
title_sort negotiating childlessness in the middle ages
topic Infertility in the Middle Ages; medieval women;
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history
topic_facet Infertility in the Middle Ages; medieval women;
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/97214
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