The History and Culture of Breast Milk : From Greco-Roman Myth to Medieval Mysticism

This book explores textual and visual representations of breast milk and breastfeeding across a range of literary and artistic genres, beginning with Classical mythology, moving through late-antique and medieval gynaecological texts on wet nursing, and ending with late-medieval hagiographical and mystical literature.It argues that, while the act of breastfeeding and the fluid of breast milk were often categorized as natural and nourishing, their meanings, uses and risks were also debated, problematized, and used to serve specific cultural, political and textual purposes. This volume traces how representations of breast milk were shaped by the shifting projects specific to particular textual and artistic genres, historical and cultural movements, and opinions, fears and desires about the female body, the role of women, and infancy.In this sense, it focuses on the semantic flexibility of breast milk by illustrating the variety of messages it was used to articulate.More broadly, the autho