Beyond the fig leaf: Sexuality, consumption, and the clothed medieval self

Clothing marked both the confines and the possibilities of mortal identity in medieval culture. In particular, late medieval modes and discourses of sartorial self-presentation expressed the conflicting interests of Christian Stoicism and social change. My dissertation is the first project to place the literary exemplification of this conflict firmly within its cultural context in later medieval Europe. I focus particular attention on the ways that the learned traditions of late antiquity shaped discussions of attire in the popular literary texts of the period, from the 'best seller' Boethian commentaries of Nicholas Trevet and John Lathbury, to the vernacular poetry of Chaucer and Lydgate. My central argument addresses an intrinsic disparity between the apparent intentions and the effective outcomes of discourses on vestimentary appearance and consumption. Although the texts that I examine all indicate that excessive attention to material goods in general and novelty in clothing in particular is immoral and destructive, they also reveal more positive elements that suggest a powerful new language, life experience, and even a new historical direction. Ultimately the novel idea of fashion itself, which gains momentum from its gendered association with feminine mutability and Fortune's famous material transience, emerges in this period as a new secular force of change and alterity.