The lecture focuses on social roles, depiction and perception of women in medieval texts. The 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: Skovajsová Martina, Mgr. (21.12.2023)
The lecture focuses on social roles, depiction and perception of women in medieval texts. The 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: Skovajsová Martina, Mgr. (21.12.2023)
Course completion requirements -
Final knowledge test
Last update: Skovajsová Martina, Mgr. (21.12.2023)
Zápočet na základě závěrečného znalostního testu
Last update: Skovajsová Martina, Mgr. (21.12.2023)
Literature -
Obligatory:
A reader of primary and secondary texts will be made available in the pdf format.
Recommended literature:
Amt, Emilie (ed.), Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe (New York: Routledge, 1993).
Beckwith, Sarah, „A Very Material Mysticism: The Medieval Mysticism of Margery Kempe“, in Medieval
Literature: Criticism, Ideology and History, ed. David Aers (Brighton: Harvester, 1986), str. 34–57.
Beer, Frances, Women and Mystical Experience in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer,
1992).
Dinshaw, Carolyn – Wallace, David (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women’s Writing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Erler, Mary C., Women, Reading, and Piety in Late Medieval England (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2002).
Ferrante, Joan, To the Glory of Her Sex: Women’s Roles in the Composition of Medieval Texts, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997).
Meale, Carole M. (ed.), Women and Literature in Britain 1150–1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993).
Robertson, Elizabeth, Early English Devotional Prose and the Female Audience (Knoxville: University of
Tennessee, 1990).
Shahar, Shulamith, The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages (London: Routledge, 1988).
Last update: Skovajsová Martina, Mgr. (21.12.2023)
Povinná:
A reader of primary and secondary texts will be made available in the pdf format.
Recommended literature:
Amt, Emilie (ed.), Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe (New York: Routledge, 1993).
Beckwith, Sarah, „A Very Material Mysticism: The Medieval Mysticism of Margery Kempe“, in Medieval
Literature: Criticism, Ideology and History, ed. David Aers (Brighton: Harvester, 1986), str. 34–57.
Beer, Frances, Women and Mystical Experience in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer,
1992).
Dinshaw, Carolyn – Wallace, David (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women’s Writing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Erler, Mary C., Women, Reading, and Piety in Late Medieval England (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2002).
Ferrante, Joan, To the Glory of Her Sex: Women’s Roles in the Composition of Medieval Texts, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997).
Meale, Carole M. (ed.), Women and Literature in Britain 1150–1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993).
Robertson, Elizabeth, Early English Devotional Prose and the Female Audience (Knoxville: University of
Tennessee, 1990).
Shahar, Shulamith, The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages (London: Routledge, 1988).
Last update: Skovajsová Martina, Mgr. (21.12.2023)
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. Feminist approaches to medieval texts for / by women
Last update: Skovajsová Martina, Mgr. (21.12.2023)
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. Feminist approaches to medieval texts for / by women
Last update: Skovajsová Martina, Mgr. (21.12.2023)
Registration requirements - Czech
Varianta předmětu pro studující programu Středověká studia (FF UK) - není povolen zápis po webu, pro zápis do předmětu kontaktujte vyučující. Pro ostatní studující je určena varianta YBEC205.
Last update: Skovajsová Martina, Mgr. (27.08.2024)
