Medieval Women Writers

by Katharina M. Wilson (Editor)

This is one of the first anthologies devoted to the writings of women in the Middle Ages. The fifteen women whose works are represented span seven centuries, eight languages, and ten regions or nationalities. Many are recognized, taught, and anthologized in their own countries but have been inaccessible to students in English. Others are little read today because their literary fortunes have paralleled fluctuations in literary taste and literary patronage. Katharina M. Wilson's introduction to the volume places these writers in historical context and explores the question of the female imagination and who these women were who were writing at a time when very few women were literate and most literature, sacred and secular, was penned by men. Each of the fifteen chapters has been written by a different scholar and includes a biographical and critical introduction to the writer, a representative selection of her works in translation, and a bibliography. Writers included are:
Dhuoda, also Dhuodana - The Frankish Mother (dates 803?-843?)
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim - The Saxon Canoness (940s-973?)
Marie de France - The French Courtly Poet (1160-1215)
Heloise - The French Scholar-Lover (1090?/1100?–16 May 1164)
Hildegard of Bingen - The German Visionary (1098–17/09/1179)
Castelloza - The Provencal Trobairitz (troubador)(early 13th C.)
Mechthild of Magdeburg - The German Mystic (c.1207–c.1282)
Hadewijch - The Brabant Mystic (13th C. Beguine)
Marguerite Porete - The French Heretic
Saint Bridget - The Swedish Visionary
Saint Catherine of Siena - The Tuscan Visionary
Julian of Norwich - The English Mystic
Margery Kempe - The English Religious Enthusiast
Florencia Pinar - The Spanish Love Poet
Christine de Pizan - The Franco-Italian Professional Writer

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical, Medieval, Feminism

400 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1984

About the author

KATHARINA M. WILSON is a professor of comparative literature at the University of Georgia. She is the author of several books and the editor of Medieval Women Writers (Georgia).

Reviews

[Alexandria · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Where are the countries or the realms that have been undone by women's misdeeds? Without prejudice, we would ask of what crimes even the worst of them, the most deceitful, can be accused. What can they do or how can they deceive you? If they beg you for money from your purse, if indeed they don't take it, do you give it to them if you don't want to? And if you say that they make fools of you, don't you allow yourselves to be made fools of?"

Christine de Pizan

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought biographical info was weak, and I didn't enjoy having so much fiction. I much prefer the other anthology I looked at with women's rhetorical theory.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must have been a hell of a bore in college.