Leonie V. Hicks

This is, as the title suggest, a study of religious life in medieval Normandy which is conducted through three different lenses: space, gender and social interactions/expectations/demands. It's useful but perhaps rather unexciting, because the chronological breadth, wide geographical scope and use of a number of different methodologies to discuss the history of all kinds of Christian religious institutions in 160 pages mean that Religious Life in Normandy becomes rather a breathless kind of synthesis. I wished that Hicks had perhaps selected one or two houses for some in-depth case studies, to really ground her methodological/theoretical ideas, which were interesting, and to demonstrate change over time. For a book which is so much about space and movement through space, it was also frustrating that there wasn't a single plan included!… (more)