Writing by and for women in the twelfth and thirteenth century in England is less well known than that of the later medieval period of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. This is the first book-length exploration of a rich literary culture embracing several vernaculars as well as Latin. It focuses particularly on women's uses and adaptations of the powerful ideal of virgin sanctity. Saints' lives were used by lay and religious women in a range of ways, whether as
exemplary of vocational biography, as historiography, as texts in the politics of court and convent, or as vernacular theology. As a sampling of this earlier literary culture, saints' lives suggest that there is a wealth of texts and manuscripts which need further study before we can map the literary
and linguistic history of women in medieval England.
- ISBN10 0198112793
- ISBN13 9780198112792
- Publish Date 1 March 2001
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Oxford University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 330
- Language English