E. Jane Burns argues that literary portraits of medieval heroines who produce and decorate silk cloth or otherwise manipulate items of silk outline a metaphorical geography that includes northern France as an important cultural player within the silk economics of the Mediterranean.

Sea of Silk
A Textile Geography of Women's Work in Medieval French Literature

E. Jane Burns

2009 | 272 pages | Cloth $59.95
Literature | Women's/Gender Studies
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Table of Contents

Introduction. Sea of Silk: A Textile Geography
Chapter 1. Women and Silk: Remapping the Silk Routes from China to France
Chapter 2. Women Silk Workers from King Arthur's France to King Roger's Palermo (Yvain ou Le Chevalier au lion)
Chapter 3. Women Working Silk from Constantinople to Lotharingia (Le Dit de l'Empereur Constant, Le Roman de la Rose ou de Guillaume de Dole)
Chapter 4. Following Two "Ladies of Carthage" from Tyre to North Africa and Spain to France (Le Roman d'Enéas, Aucassin et Nicolette)
Chapter 5. Women Mapping a Silk Route from Saint-Denis to Jerusalem and Constantinople (Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne)
Chapter 6. Silk Between virgins: Following a Relic from Constantinople to Chartres

Glossary
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Acknowledgments