Please forgive me if this message comes to you twice: I mailed it first to
the "old address" and do not know whether it will find its way to the new
address.
For about 18 months, since I began teaching courses on medieval women, I
have been collecting examples of a fascinating phenomenon in late medieval
art of giving the serpent in scene's of the fall the head of a woman --
often with the same face as that of Eve's. I have casually collected about
a dozen and a half examples, and have been talking about the implications
and meaning of this alot with my classes. Anyhow, I've recently been
invited to give a talk on this, and I figured it would behoove me to
find out what has actually been done on this -- since I can not imagine
that such an interesting trend would go ignored by the many good people
who work on gender and representation in the Middle Ages. But I don't knwo
where to look. Does anybody know? I don't mean all the very good work
done on heresy or witchcraft and women (btw, the periods coincide). I mean
specifically, who has worked through this issue of the serpent of the fall
as a woman? I've done the most obvious bibliographic searches, but don't
know enough to begin. Any help?
thanks. gratefully in advance - cecilia gaposchkin
dartmouth/berkeley
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