Women and Medieval Literary Culture
From the Early Middle Ages to the Fifteenth Century

From the early Middle Ages to the Reformation, this volume explores the multilingual and multicultural contexts of women's literary culture.

Corinne Saunders (Edited by), Diane Watt (Edited by)

9781108835916, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 August 2023

500 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.8 cm, 0.92 kg

'As one might expect from two such distinguished scholars in the field of medieval women's writing, Corinne Saunders and Diane Watt have solicited a wealth of new research from their contributors on women and literary culture throughout the long medieval period. This excellent volume is not only brimful with information but shapes the role of women in freshly ambitious terms, ranging both widely and in illuminating detail across manuscript culture, female reading communities, medicine, genre, and language. It will become an indispensable scholarly and teaching resource.' Ardis Butterfield, Yale University

Focusing on England but covering a wide range of European and global traditions and influences, this authoritative volume examines the central role of medieval women in the production and circulation of books and considers their representation in medieval literary texts, as authors, readers and subjects, assessing how these change over time. Engaging with Latin, French, German, Welsh and Gaelic literary culture, it places British writing in wider European contexts while also considering more distant influences such as Arabic. Essays span topics including book production and authorship; reception; linguistic, literary, and cultural contexts and influences; women's education and spheres of knowledge; women as writers, scribes and translators; women as patrons, readers and book owners; and women as subjects. Reflecting recent trends in scholarship, the volume spans the early Middle Ages through to the eve of the Reformation and emphasises the multilingual, multicultural and international contexts of women's literary culture.

Introduction Corinne Saunders and Diane Watt
I. Patrons, Owners, Writers, and Readers in England and Europe: 1. 'Miserere, meidens': abbesses and nuns Elaine Treharne
2. Creating her own story: queens, noblewomen, and their cultural patronage Mary Dockray-Miller
3. Woman-to-woman initiatives between female religious: vertical and horizontal learning Mary C. Erler
II. Circles and Communities in England: 4. Ancrene Wisse, the Katherine Group, and the Wooing Group as textual communities, Medieval and modern Michelle M. Sauer
5. Syon Abbey and the Birgittines Laura Saetveit Miles
6. What the Paston women read Diane Watt
III. Health, Conduct, and Knowledge: 7. Embracing the body and the soul: women in the literary culture of Medieval medicine Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa
8. Gender and class in the circulation of conduct books Kathleen Ashley
9. Women's learning and lore: magic, recipes and folk belief Martha W. Driver
10. Women and devotional compilations Denis Renevey
IV. Genre and Gender: 11. Lyrics: meditations, prayers and praises
songs and carols David Fuller
12. 'It satte me wel bet ay in a cave / To bidde and rede on holy seyntes lyves': women and hagiography Christiania Whitehead
13. Tears, mediation, and literary entanglement: the writings of Medieval visionary women Liz Herbert McAvoy
14. Convent and city: Medieval women and drama Sue Niebrzydowski
15. Women and romance Corinne Saunders
16. Trouble and strife in the Old French fabliaux Neil Cartlidge
17. Chaucer and Gower Venetia Bridges
V. Women as Authors: 18. Marie de France: identity and authorship in translation Emma Campbell
19. Julian of Norwich: a woman's vision, book, and readers Barry Windeatt
20. The communities of The Book of Margery Kemp Anthony Bale
21. Christine de Pizan: women's literary culture and Anglo-French politics Nancy Bradley Warren
22. Beyond borders: women poets in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales up to c. 1500 Cathryn A. Charnell-White.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]