ENM1220 - WOMEN'S WRITING IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Module Identifier

ENM1220

Module Title

WOMEN'S WRITING IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Academic Year

2004/2005

Co-ordinator

To Be Arranged

Semester

Intended for use in future years

Next year offered

N/A

Next semester offered

N/A

Other staff

Professor Diane Watt

Course delivery

Seminars / Tutorials

5 x 2-hour seminars

Assessment

Assessment Type	Assessment Length/Details	Proportion
Semester Assessment	Essay: 1 x 5,000 word essay

Aims

Brief description

Recent scholarship has recovered a great deal of previously neglected medieval women's writing. Spiritual texts (often of an autobiographical nature) make up perhaps three quarters of this material, but some early secular works also exist. The aim of this module is not only to introduce a selection of early women's literature, but also to examine the often problematic circumstances of its production. The whole spectrum of writing will be considered, from personal meditations and prayers to biographies and romances. Topics covered will include: representations of women; the anti-feminist tradition and defences of women; women's exclusion from history and from the literary canon; definitions of 'women's writing'; women's style; representations and self-representations of women; the anti-feminist tradition and defences of women; women and religion; feminine piety; and women in medieval society.

Content

SEMINAR PROGRAMME

1. Women's Literary History: the Medieval Phase

Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One's Own"
Janet Todd, "Feminist Literary History" (Chapter 1)
Alexandra Barratt, "Women's Writing in Middle English" (Introduction).

2. A Cell of One's Own

Julian of Norwich: "A Revelation of Love"
"The Book of Margery Kempe"
"A Revelation of Purgatory"

3. Women Writing Fiction

Marie de France's "Lais" and "Fables".

4. The First Professional Woman Writer

Christine de Pisan: "The Epistle of Othea"
Christine de Pisan: "The Body of Policy"
Christine de Pisan: "The Book of the City of Ladies"
Christine de Pisan: "The Treasure of the City of Ladies"
Christine de Pisan: "Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc"

5. Translating Authority and the Problems of 'Non-Literary' and Anonymous Texts

Dame Eleanor Hull, "The Seven Psalms and Meditations"
Lady Margaret Beaufort, "The Imitation of Christ" and "The Mirror of Gold to the Sinful Soul"
religious lyrics by women
The Paston letters
"The Assembly of Ladies"
"The Flower and the Leaf"
"The Owl and the Nightingale"
anonymous secular poetry.

Reading Lists

Books
** Should Be Purchased
Alexandra Barratt (ed.) (1992) Women's Writing in Middle English London: Longman Annotated Texts 058206192X

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 7