Maistresse of My Wit: Medieval Women, Modern Scholars

404 Pages·2004·22.346 MB·English

by  Louise D’Arcens, Juanita Feros Ruys (eds.)

, 7
Making the M iddle Ages
Maistresse of My Wit
,
M edieval Women
Modern Scholars
BR.EPOLS Edited by
Louise D’Arcens and Juanita Feros Ruys

Making the Middle Ages
Making the Middle Ages is a series of monographs, and occasionally of
collections, which aims to open up the rapidly growing and relatively newly
recognised field of ‘medievalism’ - the post-medieval construction of the
Middle Ages in scholarship and the arts - to a readership of academics,
graduate students and, in the case of some volumes, undergraduates or the
general reader. The series is devoted to scholarship in the cultural influence of the Middle Age
on England, mainland Europe, and North America from the sixteenth century to the present
day. It focuses on two perspectives of medievalism: (i) Mediävistik, the origins and history of
medieval studies, both inside and outside the academy; and (ii) Mediävismus, the creation and
recreation of the Middle Ages in post-medieval art, history, literature and popular culture.
MAISTRESSE OF MY WIT:
MEDIEVAL WOMEN, MODERN SCHOLARS
This volume explores the reciprocal relationships that can develop between medieval women
writers and the modern scholars who study them. Taking up the call to ‘research the
researcher’, the authors indicate not only what they bring to their study from their own
personal experience, but how their methodologies and ways of thinking about and dealing
with the past have been influenced by the medieval women they study. Medieval women
writers discussed include those writing in the vernacular such as Christine de Pizan and
Margaret Paston, those writing in Latin such as Hildegard of Bingen, Heloise, and Birgitta of
Sweden, and the works transcribed from women mystics such as Margery Kempe, Hadewijch,
and Julian of Norwich. Attention is also given to medieval women as the readers, consumers
and patrons of written works. Issues considered in this volume include the place of ethics,
interestedness and social justice in contemporary medieval studies, questions of alterity,
empathy, essentialism and appropriation in dealing with figures of the medieval past, the
permeable boundaries between academic medieval studies and popular medievalism, questions
of situatedness and academic voice, and the relationship between feminism and medieval
studies. Linked to these issues is the interrelation between medieval women and medieval mer
in the production and consumption of written works both for and about women and the
implications of this for both female and male readers of those works today. Overarching ail
these questions is that of the intellectual and methodological heritage - sometimes ambiguous,
perhaps even problematic - that medieval women continue to offer us.
Image used within cover design: Peter R. Hupfauf
ISBN 2-503-51165-1
9782503511658
The University of Sydney
Centre for Medieval Studies
9 782503 5 1 1658

Maistresse of My Wit
MAKING THE MIDDLE AGES
7
Making the Middle Ages
Volume 7
The Centre for Medieval Studies
University of Sydney , Australia
Editorial Board
Geraldine Barnes (University of Sydney)
Margaret Clunies Ross (University of Sydney)
Penelope Gay (University of Sydney)
David Matthews (University of Newcastle, Australia)
Stephanie Trigg (University of Melbourne)
Advisory Board
Jiirg Glauser (Universities of Zürich and Basel)
Stephen Knight (University of Wales, Cardiff)
Ulrich Müller (University of Salzburg)
Russell Poole (Massey University, New Zealand)
Tom Shippey (Saint Louis University)
Richard Utz (University of Northern Iowa)
Kathleen Verduin (Hope College, Michigan)
Series Editors
Geraldine Barnes (University of Sydney)
Margaret Clunies Ross (University of Sydney)
Editorial Assistants
Simon French & Gabrielle Singleton
Maistresse of My Wit
Medieval Women, Modem Scholars
Edited by
Louise D’Arcens and Juanita Feros Ruys
BREPOLS
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Maistresse of my wit : medieval women, modem scholars. - (Making
the Middle Ages ; v. 7)
1 .Women - History - Middle Ages, 500-1500 2.Women-
History - Historiography 3.Middle Ages - Historiography
4. Literature, Medieval - Women authors - History and criticism
5. Women and literature - History - To 1500 6.Women in
literature
I.D'Arcens, Louise II Ruys, Juanita Feros
305.4'0902
ISBN 2503511651
© 2004, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means,
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without the prior permission of the publisher
D/2004/0095/2
ISBN 2-503-51165-1
Printed in the EU on acid-free paper.