Exploring the writings of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, this study highlights how their works reflect and engage with medieval attitudes toward women and the female body. Central to their narratives, the female body serves as a lens for their mystical experiences, allowing them to craft a feminized language that asserts their authority. The analysis also delves into the archetypal representations of women in medieval society—mother, whore, and wise woman—demonstrating how both authors navigate societal expectations while articulating their own experiences as women and writers.
Medieval Women's Writing is a major new contribution to our understanding of
women's writing in England, 1100-1500. The most comprehensive account to date,
it includes writings in Latin and French as well as English, and works for as
well as by women.
Focusing on anchoritism, this book explores its significant role in shaping social, cultural, and religious dynamics during the Middle Ages. It delves into how anchorites, who withdrew from society to live in seclusion, influenced spiritual practices and community life, highlighting their contributions to medieval society. Through historical analysis, the text reveals the complexities of anchoritism and its lasting impact on the religious landscape of the time.
Exploring women's literary contributions in Britain from 700 to 1500, this volume highlights diverse activities in Latin, Welsh, and Anglo-Norman, as well as English vernacular. It challenges traditional literary history and prompts a reevaluation of what constitutes 'writing,' showcasing the significant yet often overlooked role of women in shaping literary traditions during this period.
This volume focuses on women's literary history in Britain between 700 and
1500. It brings to the fore a wide range of women's literary activity
undertaken in Latin, Welsh and Anglo-Norman alongside that of the English
vernacular, demanding a rethinking of the traditions of literary history, and
ultimately the concept of 'writing' itself.
Women's literary histories usually start in the later Middle Ages, but recent scholarship has shown that actually women were at the heart of the emergence of the English literary tradition. Women, Writing and Religion in England and Beyond, 650-1100 focuses on the period before the so-called 'Barking Renaissance' of women's writing in the 12th century. By examining the surviving evidence of women's authorship, as well as the evidence of women's engagement with literary culture more widely, Diane Watt argues that early women's writing was often lost, suppressed, or deliberately destroyed. In particular she considers the different forms of male 'overwriting', to which she ascribes the multiple connotations of 'destruction', 'preservation', 'control' and 'suppression'. She uses the term to describe the complex relationship between male authors and their female subjects to capture the ways in which texts can attempt to control and circumscribe female autonomy.Written by one of the leading experts in medieval women's writing, Women, Writing and Religion in England and Beyond, 650-1100 examines women's literary engagement in monasteries such as Ely, Whitby, Barking and Wilton Abbey, as well as letters and hagiographies from the 8th and 9th centuries. Diane Watt provides a much-needed look at women's writing in the early medieval period that is crucial to understanding women's literary history more broadly.
