Women in Medieval England and Their Literature - YBEC184

• Title: Women in Medieval England and Their Literature
• Guaranteed by: Programme SHV - Language and Literature Module (24-KO)
• Faculty: Faculty of Humanities
• Actual: from 2024
• Semester: winter
• E-Credits: 4
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/0, C [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (20)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Mgr. Klára Petříková, Ph.D.
• Class: Courses available to incoming students
• Is incompatible with: YBEC188

Annotation

English

The lecture series revolves around social roles, depiction and perception of women in medieval texts. Individual topics are introduced partly in terms of general, comprehensive overview, partly through extracts from specific texts written for women, about women and by women themselves. It focuses predominantly on works of English provenance while setting them in the overall context of seminal medieval texts written on the Continent.

Last update: Petříková Klára, Mgr., Ph.D. (08.09.2023)

Czech

Předmět představuje témata týkající se postavení, chápání a zobrazení žen ve středověkých textech. Jednotlivá témata pojednává jednak obecně, přehledově, jednak na konkrétních ukázkách studenty seznamuje s texty psanými pro ženy, o ženách nebo ženami samotnými. Soustředí se především na díla anglické středověké provenience a ty zasazuje do kontextu pro problematiku zásadních středověkých textů kontinentálních.

Last update: Petříková Klára, Mgr., Ph.D. (01.09.2023)

Course completion requirements

Students will prepare a 10-15 minute oral presentation of one of the texts assigned as secondary reading; concluding test.

Last update: Petříková Klára, Mgr., Ph.D. (08.09.2023)

Syllabus

Class themes:

1. Women and their role in medieval society; their education and literacy; women as patrons of literary texts; female communities and circulation of books

2. The genre of romance and its typology of female characters (damsel in distress, loathly lady, enchantress); Andreas Capellanus and the concept of courtly love

3. Passive and active role of women in the medieval romance (Anglo-Norman romances Havelok the Dane, King Horn, Middle English verse romances)

4. Lady as temptress and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

5. Romance genre in the works of Marie de France

6. The Book of the Knight of the Tower and conduct books written for women

7. Religious women: women as readers of devotional literature; texts written for recluses (Ancrene Wisse – Guide for anchoresses, Katherine Group, Wooing Group)

8. Women as authors of devotional texts: mystical visions of Julian of Norwich

9. Travesty of the mystical, visionary genre and Margery Kempe

10. The Romance of the Rose, medieval misogyny, apologies for women and Christine de Pizan

11. Female characters in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer (especially on the example of the legend of the patient Griselda and the Wife of Bath; Chaucer’s depiction of the character of Cressid in Troilus and Criseyde)

12. Contemporary approaches to medieval texts for / by women – feminist and gender studies

Last update: Petříková Klára, Mgr., Ph.D. (08.09.2023)