TY - JOUR
T1 - OF WOMBS AND WORDS
T2 - MIGRATING MISOGYNIES IN EARLY MODERN MEDICAL LITERATURE IN LATIN AND HEBREW
AU - Idelson-Shein, Iris
N1 - Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 801861). I thank Ahuvia Goren, Magdaléna Jánošíková, Tamir Karkason, Yakov Z. Mayer, Yael Segalovitz, Dena Ordan, and the anonymous readers for the AJS Review for their thoughtful and educative comments on previous drafts of this essay. An initial version of this article was presented at the Early Modern Worksop at Fordham University. I am grateful to the organizing committee for the opportunity to participate in this stimulating workshop, and to the participants for their insightful comments. I would also like to thank Amnon Raz Krakotzkin, David B. Ruderman, and Rebekka Voß for their generous and sage advice during the writing of this article. Note on translations: All translations are my own unless otherwise stated in notes.
Publisher Copyright:
© Association for Jewish Studies 2022.
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - In the decades surrounding the end of the seventeenth century, new ideas about women’s bodies migrated from Latin medical texts to Hebrew ones. This article follows the journey of one particular idea, that there exists a unique kind of feminine madness, termed furor uterinus in Latin, which originates in the womb, and expresses itself in excessive sexual desire and uncontrollable speech. The article offers a comparative reading of Hebrew depictions of furor uterinus, locating them within their wider cultural context. It reveals the dynamic ways in which early modern Hebrew authors actively participated in contemporary scientific discussions, importing them back into the Jewish community. The intense (albeit often unacknowledged) dialogue which took place between Hebrew medical texts and their source texts offers a valuable lesson on forms of cultural transfer, authorship, and translation, as well as on competing notions of feminine sickness and sexuality in early modern Europe.
AB - In the decades surrounding the end of the seventeenth century, new ideas about women’s bodies migrated from Latin medical texts to Hebrew ones. This article follows the journey of one particular idea, that there exists a unique kind of feminine madness, termed furor uterinus in Latin, which originates in the womb, and expresses itself in excessive sexual desire and uncontrollable speech. The article offers a comparative reading of Hebrew depictions of furor uterinus, locating them within their wider cultural context. It reveals the dynamic ways in which early modern Hebrew authors actively participated in contemporary scientific discussions, importing them back into the Jewish community. The intense (albeit often unacknowledged) dialogue which took place between Hebrew medical texts and their source texts offers a valuable lesson on forms of cultural transfer, authorship, and translation, as well as on competing notions of feminine sickness and sexuality in early modern Europe.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147038632&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1353/ajs.2022.0042
DO - 10.1353/ajs.2022.0042
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85147038632
SN - 0364-0094
VL - 46
SP - 243
EP - 269
JO - AJS Review
JF - AJS Review
IS - 2
ER -