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.

_SEMINAR PROGRAMME

_1. Women's Literary History: the Medieval Phase

• Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, the Norton Anthology of Literature by Women (Introduction to the section on the Middle Ages and Renaissance)
• 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

• "The Life of Christina of Markyate"
• The St Albans Psalter

_3. Women Writing Fiction

• Marie de France's "Lais", "Fables" and "St Alban's Psalter"

_4. Who's Afraid of Margery Kempe?

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

_5. Do Letters Have Authors?

• The Paston letters