The Literary Subversions of Medieval Women

Chance, Jane

doi:10.1057/9780230605596

Cited by 10 publications

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“…For a detailed discussion of the term see especially the chapter "What Is a Minor Literature? "; for its application in the context of medieval women's writing, see Chance (2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Convention? Representation of Female Characters in Middle English Romances

Kiełkowicz

2017

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Abstract:The paper presents literary images of medieval women in four Middle English romances, viz. King Horn, Sir Isumbras, Havelok the Dane and Sir Gawain and the Green Night. Its aim is to identify some conventional patterns of representation of female characters in the literary works classified as different subtypes of the genre of romance, namely ancestral romance (King Horn, Havelok the Dane), homiletic romance (Sir Isumbras) and Arthurian romance (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight). After Sharon Farmer and other feminist critics, the concept of gender is interpreted as one of the major categories of difference in medieval English society. This argument is supported by the analysis of the construction of female characters in the romances in question. However, while it is important to remember that the society of medieval England was to a large extent male-governed and male-dominated, which is the reason for the apparent centrality of male protagonists in medieval English literature, the function of female characters in literary works of that period is not necessarily secondary. The paper focuses on the importance of women in presenting the protagonist's genealogy and on selected strategies of representation, such as reversal of gender roles or marginalization of female characters. The essay attempts to demonstrate that the category of gender, as it is seen in the medieval texts, cannot be reduced to a simplified model of binary oppositions, since the romances also introduce the complexity of power relations and tensions between the sexes.

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“…For a detailed discussion of the term see especially the chapter "What Is a Minor Literature? "; for its application in the context of medieval women's writing, see Chance (2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Convention? Representation of Female Characters in Middle English Romances

Kiełkowicz

2017

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Finding Avalon: The Place and Meaning of the Otherworld in Marie de France’s Lanval

Leventhal

2013

Neophilologus

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Dialogue in the Monastery: Hagiography as a Pedagogical Model

Pick

2019

Stud. Church hist.

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This article explores the reasons why dialogue has been such a key part of religious education by examining several texts from the medieval period: Gregory the Great's Dialogues, Petrus Alfonsi's Dialogue against the Jews and three hagiographical narratives from tenth-century Spanish manuscripts. It will argue that when read or listened to, the dialogue of the text was meant in turn to cue an internal dialogue, a response within the self, and a transformation. While meditative religious reading of all kinds was thought of as producing this inner reflection and debate, the dialogue format was an especially effective didactic tool for inculcating in beginners a mode of internal reflection and questioning, inspired by an outside source. Finally, although the content and even the message of the dialogue that is written or overheard may be fixed and clear, its effect on those who read or hear it remains open and provisional. It is up to readers or listeners to draw their own conclusions and absorb their own lessons from it.

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The Literary Subversions of Medieval Women

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Beyond the Convention? Representation of Female Characters in Middle English Romances

Beyond the Convention? Representation of Female Characters in Middle English Romances

Finding Avalon: The Place and Meaning of the Otherworld in Marie de France’s Lanval

Dialogue in the Monastery: Hagiography as a Pedagogical Model

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