Women and Medieval Literary Culture

Focusing on England but covering a wide range of European and global traditions and influences, this authoritative volume examines the central role of medieval women in the production and circulation of books and considers their representation in medieval literary texts, as authors, readers, and subjects, assessing how these change over time. Engaging with Latin, French, German, Welsh, and Gaelic literary culture, it places British writing in wider European contexts while also considering more distant influences such as Arabic. Essays span topics including book production and authorship, reception, linguistic, literary, and cultural contexts and influences, women's education and spheres of knowledge, women as writers, scribes, and translators, women as patrons, readers, and book owners, and women as subjects. Reflecting recent trends in scholarship, the volume spans the early Middle Ages through to the eve of the Reformation and emphasizes the multilingual, multicultural, and international contexts of women's literary culture.