Moral Posturing Body Language Rhetoric And The Performance Of Identity In Late Medieval French And English Conduct Manuals Phd Diss Sharon Claire Mitchell by Sharon Claire Mitchell instant download after payment.

My dissertation examines how late medieval conduct manuals maintained social stability by offering readers an identity of "noble virtue" that the reader could perform. The manuals were a feudal society's conscious efforts to control the social disruptions of class revolts and an increasingly powerful mercantile caste. In teaching readers that respectable behavior was the best channel for their ambition, the manual writers sought to reduce the chances that people would seek more drastic or socially chaotic avenues to power such as joining rebellions, arranging their own marriages, or disregarding ancient privilege in favor of plutocracy. The manuals' advice used terms of both self-presentation and self-transformation: readers were to display the physical marks of virtue--a steady gaze, dignified movements and restrained facial expressions--partly to establish good reputations, and partly in order to shape their thoughts in conformity to their outward sobriety. One would lead a virtuous life as much for the intangible reward of feeling that one has improved one's self, as for the more concrete goal of improving one's social position, either through marriage or chivalric feats, or the eventual goal of gaining heaven. Although conduct manuals sought to promote social stability, their methods of doing so could be very different. The French conduct manuals tend to minimize the possibility of rising, and rather encourage readers to live honorably and contentedly in their present spheres. The English conduct manuals, in contrast, imply that rising is more likely than it may actually have been. The writers of these manuals were often on the edge of the lower nobility themselves. They used their writing to position themselves within a kind of "aristocracy of virtue" as well as to offer their readers a chance to gain both self-respect and the respect of others. Conduct manuals, in short, offered both readers and writers an opportunity to create their own identities and define themselves, however rigidly defined their place in society might appear to be.