The practice and the representation of flaying in the middle ages
and after are considered in this provocative collection. Skin is
the parchment upon which identity is written; class, race,
ethnicity, and gender are all legible upon the human surface.
Removing skin tears away identity, and leaves a blank slate upon
which law, punishment, sanctity, ormonstrosity can be inscribed;
whether as an act of penal brutality, as a comic device, or as a
sign of spiritual sacrifice, it leaves a lasting impression about
the qualities and nature of humanity. Flaying often functioned as
animaginative resource for medieval and early modern artists and
writers, even though it seems to have been rarely practiced in
reality. From images of Saint Bartholomew holding his skin in his
arms, to scenes of execution in Havelok the Dane, to laws that
prescribed it as a punishment for treason, this volume explores the
idea and the reality of skin removal - flaying - in the Middle
Ages. It interrogates the connection between reality and
imagination in depictions of literal skin removal, rather than
figurative or theoretical interpretations of flaying, and offers a
multilayered view of medieval and early modern perceptions of
flaying and its representations in Europeanculture. Its two parts
consider practice and representation, capturing the evolution of
flaying as both an idea and a practice in the premodern world.
Larissa Tracy is Associate Professor, Longwood University.
Contributors: Frederika Bain, Peter Dent, Kelly DeVries, Valerie
Gramling, Perry Neil Harrison, Jack Hartnell, Emily Leverett,
Michael Livingston, Sherry C.M. Lindquist, Asa Mittman, Mary
Rambaran-Olm, William Sayers, Christine Sciacca, Susan Small,
Larissa Tracy, Renée Ward
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