Sea of Silk: A Textile Geography of Women's Work in Medieval French Literature [Hardback]

This intriguing book looks at the depiction of female silk workers in Old French literature, arguing that literary portraits of medieval heroines who produce and decorate silk cloth or otherwise manipulate items of silk outline a metaphorical geography that includes France as an important cultural player in the silk economics of the Mediterranean. Within this literary sea of silk, female protagonists who "work" silk in a variety of ways often deploy it successfully as a social and cultural currency that enables them to traverse religious and political barriers while also crossing lines of gender and class.