Queering the Middle Ages

Arches, Students

Chloe Shankland ’23 searches for queer representation in high medieval literature

Books and movies often portray medieval Europe as a highly regimented, theologically conservative society marked by strict gender roles and a total absence of queer people, but according to history major Chloe Shankland ’23, that view isn’t accurate. While few sources exist, literature from the period hints at a vibrant world of nonheteronormative art and culture.

Shankland worked with her advisor, Professor of History Katherine Smith, to examine poems, legal documents, and church records from 1000 to 1250 A.D. in search of references to queer identities and fluid gender roles.

“It’s been fascinating to see how writers were challenging their society’s expectations of gender and sexuality,” Shankland says. “A lot of modern scholarship has erased queer and trans narratives in medieval source material, but the evidence is there if you look hard enough.”

History major Chloe Shankland ’23 spent the summer examining medieval documents in search of references to queer identities and fluid gender roles.

Shankland eventually zeroed in on a 13th-century French poem called “Le Roman de Silence.” The main character, Silence, is born female but raised as a man in order to circumvent a law prohibiting women from inheriting property. Throughout the poem, the author flips between male and female names and pronouns for Silence, who masters traditionally masculine skills and social roles before settling into a heterosexual relationship with King Evan.

“How did the audience perceive this romance?” Shankland asks. “Did they see gender as unchanging—or as performative and easily altered through clothing or skills? Is this romance an aberration, or is it part of a larger genre of queer literature? It’s hard to know, because we can’t ask the author what they intended.”

Shankland compared the poem to other documents from the same period, including gender-normative romances, satires, and church documents, to get a sense of the context in which the unknown author of “Silence” was writing. In those documents, she found more evidence of queerness, including the testimony of lesbians executed or exiled for their sexuality and oblique references to trans and genderqueer saints. All of these documents point to a Europe that was far from homogenous.

Chloe Shankland ’23

"Through this project, I found a more authentic understanding of my past, one that exposes questions about our society that we are still answering today and ultimately reveals the necessity of transgression."

Chloe Shankland presents her project at a research symposium — Shankland presents her research during a symposium on campus.

Chloe Shankland sits at a table in Collins Memorial Library, making notes in a book of poetry — Queer and trans narratives have largely been erased from medieval source materials, Shankland says, "but the evidence is there if you look hard enough."

A student studies an open book of poetry — Shankland focused her research paper on the 13th-century French poem "La Roman de Silence."

“The real challenge of medieval scholarship is finding sources,” Shankland says. “Many of the sources we rely on are clerical works written by and for church officials, which give us a very narrow view. So, adding in literature and court cases offers us a broader and more accessible version of social history that incorporates the queer experience.”

Through her research, Shankland has gained an appreciation for how the dominant narrative of Europe in the Middle Ages—as overwhelmingly white, masculine, and straight—has been pushed at the expense of more diverse perspectives, as well as the difficult task historians face as they try to piece together a more accurate picture of what life was like a thousand years ago.

“As a queer woman, I’m fascinated by the study of queer history,” Shankland says. “It’s important for me to be connected to my past and the people who came before me. Through this project, I found a more authentic understanding of my past, one that exposes questions about our society that we're still answering today and ultimately reveals the necessity of transgression. Studying medieval sources allows me to reclaim a piece of that story that has been suppressed.”