The legend of Lady Godiva and the image of the female body
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11892137 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katherine L French (0000-0002-0153-8035, a University of Minnesota, 614 Social Sciences Building, 267 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-19 |
| Publication date | 1992-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Medieval History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0304-4181 • E-ISSN: 1873-1279 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1016/0304-4181(92)90015-q |
| OpenAlex | W2022766261 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
Lady Godiva freed the city of Coventry from its burdensome tolls by riding naked through the market place. Ostensibly her legend explains how a town gained its freedom from a domineering overlord, yet the means for communicating this new civic identity are through the highly charged images of the female body. Godiva presents a complex and often ambiguous image, the meaning of which is not readily obvious from surviving medieval accounts of the legend. She simultaneously exhibits the seemingly contradictory images of the Virgin Mary, Eve and Mary Magdalene by assuming many of their physical attributes and actions, such as mediation, nudity and long hair. By examining the versions of this legend, and the way that Godiva is presented throughout them, we can see how the people of Coventry articulated their concerns about issues of order and disorder, social control and the function of the city
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Genealogy · Identity (music · Legend · Meaning (existential · Order (exchange · Sociology · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
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