About Medieval Women Writers

Scholarship on medieval women writers is a somewhat recent phenomenon, in part because we know relatively little about men of the Middle Ages-and what we know about women from the period is even more limited. In this course, we will engage this new frontier in literary studies by examining the writings of a diverse group of medieval women-from reclusive anchoresses to aristocratic women of the court-and analyzing the perceptions of reality, both secular and religious, that they present. We will also read and respond to a number of critical essays concerning medieval women and the various debates that have emerged in the study of their works. We will begin the course with a unit on context, acquainting ourselves with the major socio-historical developments that shaped the period as well as the little that is known about medieval women and their roles in society. We will then take a look at some major feminist and gender/sex-related approaches to literature, making their various methods and beliefs available to us as we progress through the course. The remainder of the course has been divided into two major units: women of the Church, and women of the secular world. In each of these units, we will perform close readings of women-authored texts, examining their styles, techniques, and representations of the world around them.