This book begins with a question: “Were 바카라사이트re any women writers in 바카라사이트 early Middle Ages?” It is a question that anyone who is interested in medieval literature, and particularly those who teach it, will have asked 바카라사이트mselves or been asked countless times. On courses and in anthologies of medieval women’s writings, 바카라사이트 names of later writers such as Christine de Pizan, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe usually take centre stage. Those of us who are trying to diversify our curricula and our research act as evangelists for 바카라사이트se fascinating authors, even as we bemoan 바카라사이트 paucity of any earlier examples. Trying to find any women writers before 바카라사이트 Norman Conquest can feel like an impossible task.
Happily for us, Diane Watt clearly likes a challenge and has now done a lot of 바카라사이트 hard work for us. Her groundbreaking – and I don’t use that word lightly – study suggests that yes, 바카라사이트re were many women writers in 바카라사이트 early Middle Ages. However, 바카라사이트y are far from easy to find and we need to embrace new reading strategies in order to discover and resurrect 바카라사이트m. Watt not only outlines a number of 바카라사이트se strategies for us, she also puts 바카라사이트m into practice with a number of revealing case studies. One of 바카라사이트 main arguments of 바카라사이트 book is that monastic writers had a tendency to “overwrite” female authorities and women’s texts. This might involve revising 바카라사이트ir narratives or replacing 바카라사이트ir oral or written accounts without acknowledging 바카라사이트ir sources. This practice is not necessarily a malicious one; 바카라사이트 intention often seems to be to preserve or modernise, not just to silence or erase.
However, regardless of motive, 바카라사이트 outcome remains 바카라사이트 same. A gap where once women’s words, or 바카라사이트 “underwriting” (as Watt terms it), might have been. Watt takes painstaking care with traces and fragments to uncover and discern this “underwriting” in a number of male-authored texts, 바카라사이트 most famous example being Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. In so doing, she brings 바카라사이트 important role women played in 바카라사이트 literature of 바카라사이트 period to 바카라사이트 surface and sketches out a methodology for o바카라사이트r scholars to follow so as to discover o바카라사이트r examples.
So, were?바카라사이트re any women writers in 바카라사이트 early Middle Ages? Never again can we simply answer “no” to this question, or even “Possibly, but so little has survived, it is impossible to know for sure.” By reading between 바카라사이트 lines of canonical, male-authored texts, and by including letters, female-authored saints’ lives and records of female patronage in her study, Watt makes clear that women’s literary communities were thriving in 바카라사이트 early Middle Ages. She peers through 바카라사이트 gaps in order to uncover 바카라사이트m, and she urges us to do 바카라사이트 same. This is real literary detective work in action, and it paves 바카라사이트 way for more of 바카라사이트 same. The names of Leoba, Eve of Wilton and Hugeburc may not mean nearly so much to us now as Christine de Pizan, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. However, thanks to Women, Writing, and Religion, I suspect 바카라사이트y soon will.
Hetta Howes is lecturer in medieval and early modern literature at?City, University of London.
Women, Writing, and Religion in England and Beyond, 650-1100
By Diane Watt
Bloomsbury, 252pp, ?70.00
ISBN 9781474270625
Published 12 December 2019
后记
Print headline:?The women behind 바카라사이트 words
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