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Author
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Comment
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avalondeb
Registered User
(11/29/05 8:54 pm)
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Rapunzel's Mother and Pica?
I searched but didn't find any reference Rapunzel's Mother and her cravings. Growing up in this country, I never heard of the condition "Pica", where a pregnant woman will crave strange and even non-food items. I read about it will surfing WebMD.
To me, this totally explains Rapunzel's Mother's cravings, and makes her a tragic figure instead of a selfish one, to me. Anyone have any comments?
Pica explained:
www.webmd.com/content/Art...genumber=2
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Chris Peltier
Registered User
(11/29/05 9:53 pm)
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Re: Rapunzel's Mother and Pica?
Pregnancy, to a mindset of another era, would probably be deemed the result of a woman's sexual appetites. (In medieval literature classes, it always blew my mind that men would be portrayed as the weak victims of women's sexual energy - as though no man ever took advantage of a woman!) Under the sway of such appetites, the wife could compell (!) her husband to commit social transgressions - and travelling over a wall to satiate more physical appetites would be seen as a transgression.
By the by, the French version of Rapunzel is called Persinette, which is a reference to parsley.
~Chandra~
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(11/29/05 10:55 pm)
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pregnancy and cravings
I disagree that Rapunzel's mother's cravings would be seen as transgression. Research on English understandings of pregnancy in the Renaissance show that pregnant women's cravings were recognized and accorded great importance; it was the husband's duty to supply whatever she needed and wanted, and there are examples of in-laws writing to each other to get the husband's parents to force him to do his duty. A good book on this is Women as Mothers in Pre-Industrial England, edited by Valerie Fildes. Of course, England isn't France or Italy, but I'd have a very hard time believing there was no connection at all among such attitudes.
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Chris Peltier
Registered User
(11/29/05 11:48 pm)
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Re: pregnancy and cravings
Hey now!
I didn't say that her cravings would be seen as a transgression, but that her pregnancy would be seen as a result of sexual appetites. The appetites of the human body, especially during the Middle Ages, were always regarded as suspect - writers like St. Jerome always praised virgins over matrons. "Pre-Industrial England" sounds a little later than the time period that I was refering to.
Hey, I was merely sharing a thought, not writing a thesis, otherwise I'd provide a bibiography.
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(11/30/05 12:01 am)
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pregnancy
Sorry I misread you--maybe I read too quickly. My internet is wonky these days, and I end up doing things a bit more quickly than I would otherwise in order to take advantage of the times when I have a signal!
Eh, it may have been "pre-modern"--in any case, they were talking about medieval to 17th-century, if I recall correctly. Definitely Fildes, though. Valerie Fildes, the big-name scholar of pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding in England in the Renaissance and before!
I don't remember what they said about pregnancy as well--what I remember is these great long passages of advice from uncles to their nephews giving detailed advice on sex and turning their wives on! Long passages about how if she's not ready for sex, you want to get her ready by stroking her and talking dirty, and charms for conception, that kind of thing. I dunno--church writers regarded bodily appetites as suspect, but that wasn't always the major influence on how the laity saw this kind of thing.
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Chris Peltier
Registered User
(11/30/05 12:05 am)
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Re: pregnancy
Sounds like a great read - I will look for it. I must say, it is always difficult to second guess the subtext of these stories. If I run with an idea, I never mean to insist that it is written in stone!
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(11/30/05 10:19 am)
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of course!
Of course not! When I said "I disagree," it didn't mean anything more or less than that I disagreed with what turned out to be a misreading of your point! I certainly didn't mean to imply that I was slamming you or anything--just that people can disagree about interpretations and suchlike.
It is a good book. BAck when I thought I was going to specialize in Renaissance lit, I was going to focus on representations of pregnancy and childbirth (there're some great Renaissance plays in which a pregnant woman cross-dresses, very weird!), and I loved this book. I changed fields, but the topic remains close to my heart.
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