Women and Medieval Literary Culture

Corinne Saunders is Professor of Medieval Literature in the Department of English Studies, Durham University. Her third monograph, Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance, was published in 2010. Recent co-edited books include The Life of Breath in Literature, Culture, and Medicine: Classical to Contemporary (2021) and Visions and Voice-Hearing in Medieval and Early Modern Contexts (2020). She is English Editor for the journal Medium Ævum. Diane Watt is Professor of Medieval English Literature at the University of Surrey. Her previous books include Women, Writing and Religion in England and Beyond, 650–1100 (2019), Medieval Women's Writing: Books By and For Women in England, 1100–1500 (2007), Amoral Gower: Language, Sex and Politics (2003), and Secretaries of God: Women Prophets in Late Medieval and Early Modern England (1997).

• Introduction Corinne Saunders and Diane Watt; I. Patrons, Owners, Writers, and Readers in England and Europe: 1. 'Miserere, meidens': abbesses and nuns Elaine Treharne; 2. Creating her own story: queens, noblewomen, and their cultural patronage Mary Dockray-Miller; 3. Woman-to-woman initiatives between female religious: vertical and horizontal learning Mary C. Erler; II. Circles and Communities in England: 4. Ancrene Wisse, the Katherine Group, and the Wooing Group as textual communities, Medieval and modern Michelle M. Sauer; 5. Syon Abbey and the Birgittines Laura Saetveit Miles; 6. What the Paston women read Diane Watt; III. Health, Conduct, and Knowledge: 7. Embracing the body and the soul: women in the literary culture of Medieval medicine Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa; 8. Gender and class in the circulation of conduct books Kathleen Ashley; 9. Women's learning and lore: magic, recipes and folk belief Martha W. Driver; 10. Women and devotional compilations Denis Renevey; IV. Genre and Gender: 11. Lyrics: meditations, prayers and praises; songs and carols David Fuller; 12. 'It satte me wel bet ay in a cave / To bidde and rede on holy seyntes lyves': women and hagiography Christiania Whitehead; 13. Tears, mediation, and literary entanglement: the writings of Medieval visionary women Liz Herbert McAvoy; 14. Convent and city: Medieval women and drama Sue Niebrzydowski; 15. Women and romance Corinne Saunders; 16. Trouble and strife in the Old French fabliaux Neil Cartlidge; 17. Chaucer and Gower Venetia Bridges; V. Women as Authors: 18. Marie de France: identity and authorship in translation Emma Campbell; 19. Julian of Norwich: a woman's vision, book, and readers Barry Windeatt; 20. The communities of The Book of Margery Kemp Anthony Bale; 21. Christine de Pizan: women's literary culture and Anglo-French politics Nancy Bradley Warren; 22. Beyond borders: women poets in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales up to c. 1500 Cathryn A. Charnell-White.

'This book makes a statement, not simply about medieval women, but about medieval life. With chapters on ecclesiastical women, noble and royal women, townswomen, readers and patrons the volume offers a broad understanding of the interests, complexities, and dynamics of medieval life. The arrangement of the essays makes it easy to navigate among topics and interests. The essays are cogent; the bibliographies are good, and the entire volume gives readers a sense of the many ways in which women were involved with a broadly conceived literary culture in the Middle Ages.' Lynn Staley, Colgate University