Ambiguous Locks

Download or read book Ambiguous Locks written by Roberta Milliken and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has long been said that a woman's hair is her crowning glory. Indeed, throughout history, hair has remained an important cultural symbol of femininity. In medieval art, iconic images of long, flowing locks can express sexuality, and the cutting of a woman's hair often signals her feminine misbehavior. Artists of all kinds in the Middle Ages used women's long hair to manipulate their audience's estimation of their female figures. This interdisciplinary work explores the significance of women's hair in literature and art from the medieval period through 1525, putting into historical context the ways in which hair participates in construction of the female identity.