<p>Alcohol has been present in almost every
society throughout history, and so has a double standard around alcohol usage:
women are stigmatized far more than men for excessive drinking. In this
dissertation, I explore the intimate association between wine consumption and
gender relations in Spanish late medieval and early modern literature. In late
medieval and early modern European society, distinctions of gender, age, class,
religion, and occupation were reflected in what one chose to eat and drink.
Wine was undoubtedly the most popular and highly regarded beverage, especially
in the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of southern Europe. Wine has always been
deeply integrated into the Spaniards’ lives, not only as a daily beverage but
also as a marker of individual and group identities. While references to wine
have flowed through Spanish literature, thorough examinations of women’s
drinking have surprisingly been left unexplored. </p>
<p>This study fills that gap, analyzing
representations of female drinking in Spanish literature, specifically the
ambivalent approach to wine as it relates to the construction of gender
identities. This study analyzes the representation of female drinking
throughout the Spanish literary canon, especially focusing on the <i>Libro de
buen amor</i> (ca. 1343), the <i>Arcipreste de Talavera</i> (also called as <i>Corbacho</i>,
ca. 1438), and the <i>Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea </i>(also known as <i>Celestina</i>,
1502) with the purpose of demonstrating how wine consumption constitutes,
reflects, and questions normative gender roles. In medieval and early modern
Europe, gender identities were either masculine or feminine, attached to rigid,
stereotypical gender roles for men and women. Drunken women, therefore,
presented a threat that needed to be contained. During the Middle Ages, while
drunken women were represented as personifying gluttony and violating both
moral and gender norms in didactic, moralizing treatises, there were literary
fictions that depicted female drunkards who openly enjoyed wine, praised its
virtues, and socialized by drinking with other women. The gender ideology of
Spanish patriarchy created masculine anxiety around unfeminine women, like
female drunkards, who were unsuited to a life of purity and chastity. I argue
that this anxiety, evident in the extreme condemnation of drunken women,
paradoxically reveals the contradictions underlying the patriarchal agenda. I
also interpret female drinking practices as performative acts of resistance
against normative gender roles. Drawing on the notion that gender is a
performative act, alcohol drinking by women can be understood as a subversive
act that transgresses and reconfigures social norms around gendered identities
in late medieval and early modern Spain. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/8258918 |
| Date | 14 August 2019 |
| Creators | Minji Kang (6824849) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/In_Vino_Veritas_Wine_Sex_and_Gender_Relations_in_Late_Medieval_and_Early_Modern_Spanish_Literature/8258918 |
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