The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing

This Companion examines the lives of medieval women by focusing on the texts that emerged from and shaped their experience.

Carolyn Dinshaw (Edited by), David Wallace (Edited by)

9780521796385, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 May 2003

316 pages
24.6 x 13.9 x 2 cm, 0.49 kg

'… the volume offers an impressive range of essays representing a variety of methodologies and perspectives. … the volume makes an equal worthy read from beginning to end …' Envoi

The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing seeks to recover the lives and particular experiences of medieval women by concentrating on various kinds of texts: the texts they wrote themselves as well as texts that attempted to shape, limit, or expand their lives. The first section investigates the roles traditionally assigned to medieval women (as virgins, widows, and wives); it also considers female childhood and relations between women. The second section explores social spaces, including textuality itself: for every surviving medieval manuscript bespeaks collaborative effort. It considers women as authors, as anchoresses 'dead to the world', and as preachers and teachers in the world staking claims to authority without entering a pulpit. The final section considers the lives and writings of remarkable women, including Marie de France, Heloise, Joan of Arc, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and female lyricists and romancers whose names are lost, but whose texts survive.

Contributors
Chronology Chris Africa
Introduction Carolyn Dinshaw and David Wallace
Part I. Estates of Women: 1. Female Childhoods Daniel T. Kline
2. Virginity Ruth Evans
3. Marriage Dyan Elliott
4. Widows Barbara Hanawalt
5. Between Women Karma Lochrie
Part II. Texts and Other Spaces: 6. Women and authorship Jennifer Summit
7. Enclosure Christopher Cannon
8. At home
out of the house Sarah Salih
9. Beneath the pulpit Alcuin Blamires
Part III. Medieval Women: 10. Heloise Christopher Baswell
11. Marie de France Roberta L. Krueger
12. The Roman de la Rose, Christine de Pizan, and the querelles des femmes David F. Hult
13. Lyrics and romances Sarah McNamer
14. Julian of Norwich Nicholas Watson
15. Margery Kempe Carolyn Dinshaw
16. Continental women mystics and English readers Alexandra Barratt
17. Joan of Arc Nadia Margolis
Guide to further reading.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]