| Description |
1 online resource (xvi, 314 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
Introduction: Women's Literary Culture in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century England. 1. The Virgin Estate. 1.1. From history to eternity. 1.2. The romance of virgin enclosure. 1.3. The occupations of enclosure. 1.4. Virgins, wives, widows. 1.5. Female community and its histories. 2. Virginity and the Gift. 2.1. Post-Conquest re-inventions of virginity. 2.2. Enduring bodies: the gift of the virgin. 2.3. Virgin exchange: dotality in Anglo-Norman culture. 2.4. The giving of women. 3. Virgin Passions: Romance, Raptus, Ritual. 3.1. The virgin heroine and the properties of romance. 3.2. The virgin and the pagan: debate and torture. 3.3. Revolting readers: hagiographic narrative and women's anti-Semitism. 4. Honorary Virginities. 4.1. Responses to enclosure: virgin romance and maternity. 4.2. Repenting at leisure: virginity, harlotry, householding. 5. Beyond Enclosure: The Lives of a Widow. 5.1. 'In my liege power and widowhood': Isabella of Arundel, her literacies, her saints. 5.2. Ascetic biography and baronial spirituality. 6. Virgin Authority and its Transmission. 6.1. Foundresses and abbesses. 6.2. Abbess models and female transmissions of power. 6.3. Abbess miracles and their clients. 7. The Virgin Speaks. 7.1. Saints' lives and the preaching and teaching of women. 7.2. Sibyls and soteriology: the voices of Clemence of Barking. 7.3. The virgin's body: vision and history in England |
| Summary |
This volume explores the usefulness of the virgin ideal for widows, wives, and women in religion, and presents a book-length study of women writers in England in the 12th and 13th centuries |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 266-305) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- History and criticism
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Women and literature -- England -- History -- To 1500
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Virginity -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History of doctrines -- Middle Ages, 600-1500
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Christian literature, English (Middle) -- History and criticism
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English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism
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Women -- Books and reading -- England -- History -- To 1500
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Christian women saints -- Legends -- History and criticism
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Women -- Religious life -- England -- History -- To 1500
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Christian saints in literature.
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Virginity in literature.
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Hagiography.
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hagiographies (works)
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Christian literature, English (Middle)
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Christian saints in literature
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Christian women saints -- Legends
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English literature -- Middle English
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English literature -- Women authors
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Hagiography
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Virginity in literature
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Women and literature
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Women -- Books and reading
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Women -- Religious life
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England
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Oxford University Press
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| ISBN |
9780191707599 |
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0191707597 |
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