In the later Middle Ages clothing was used to mark religious, military, and chivalric orders; in the courtly milieu, more specifically, the ostentatious display of luxury dress was used as a means of self-definition for the ruling elite. In Courtly Love Undressed, E. Jane Burns explores the representation of this material culture in the literary texts and other documents that imagine various functions for elite clothing in twelfth- and thirteenth-century France. "Burns argues persuasively that fabric and clothing can create representations of both gender and status in selected French courtly texts. . . . While grounded in solid readings of medieval texts, Burns's book also reflects and adds to recent feminist rethinking of clothing's capacity to empower women."--Speculum