Ruth M. Karras

In medieval Christian Western European culture, King David was one of the Nine Worthies (Neuf preux), three Biblical, three classical, and three medieval figures who were held up as models of valiant and virtuous manhood. In medieval Jewish culture, he was the paradigmatic king. A cross-cultural investigation of central to later medieval texts involving King David (roughly, twelfth through fifteenth centuries) reveals a great deal about the construction of manhood. David is exemplary in both positive and negative ways, and the multifaceted depictions indicate that masculinity is more than just the military prowess, defense of honor, and sexual dominance typically connected with it. The result will be a book that traces a set of themes across time, space, and religious community.

In terms of Jewish/Christian studies, a treatment of how the same Biblical figure develops in different cultures raises questions about cultural entanglement. Recent scholarship has shown that Jews and Christians knew each other's texts better than is apparently obvious. This was not a matter of unidirectional influence. Sometimes it was convergence, sibling cultures using the same text similarly, and sometimes a matter of active intellectual exchange. A comparative method helps to elucidate these connections.

In gender studies, this project interrogates the idea of "hegemonic masculinity". Any given culture’s expectations are not the same for all men: masculinity helps maintain the privilege of some groups over others. David is a figure who represents an elevated social stratum whose expectations are different than those for his subjects; and yet, as a central religious figure he was used as an exemplar for all. The project will discuss the relation between typology and ideal masculinities.

In addition, the work counters two widely accepted ideas about masculinities in the Middle Ages. In Christian culture, the overrepresentation of clerical authors in extant texts, indeed probably in all the texts that ever existed, has led some modern scholars to the belief that marriage was in some way "queer" and celibacy the universal ideal. David demonstrates the erroneous nature of this conclusion while at the same time complicating ideas of male sexual virtue. In Jewish culture, the importance of learning and piety has given rise to the idea that ideal masculinity is bookish and nonviolent; here again, the military virtue of King David provides a counter-example.