Gone Medieval Medieval Obscenity
13 snips
Aug 19, 2025 Carissa Harris, a Professor of English literature at Temple University and author of 'Obscene Pedagogies,' dives into the raucous world of medieval obscenity. She explains how blunt humor and explicit language weren’t just for entertainment but tools for critiquing morality and power. Topics include the bold expression of women in alehouse culture, the peculiarities of impotence poetry, and the bizarre legal practices surrounding annulments. Prepare for an engaging exploration of how obscenity shaped societal norms and the nuances of medieval masculinity!
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Medieval Obscenity Was Widespread
- Medieval culture was bawdy and openly obscene, not uniformly chaste or prudish.
- Obscenity functioned socially and rhetorically to puncture vanity and expose hypocrisy.
Obscene Words Kept Ancestral Roots
- Late medieval obscene vocabulary in English was often Germanic (pintle, tars, sweave, cunt) rather than French.
- These terms coexisted with euphemisms and double‑meaning words like yard and hole.
Courtly Obscenity Stayed Elite
- Courtly French also produced extremely obscene tales but tended to circulate within elite circles.
- That separation limited direct lexical bleed into wider popular speech.
