Gendering the Master Narrative

Women and Power in the Middle Ages

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9799800
AutoresD Dunn (0000-0003-1836-4446), Dana S Dunn (0000-0003-3434-2044, University of Chester, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen121
Número492
Páginas920-921
Fecha de publicación2006-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe English Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-8266 • E-ISSN: 1477-4534
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ehr/cel162
OpenAlexW2045968460
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas15

The enduring interest in the broad theme of women and power in medieval Europe is evident from this wide-ranging collection of essays which builds on an equally diverse collection of essays published in 1988 as Women and Power in the Middle Ages, also under the editorship of Erler and Kowaleski. Both volumes are the product of conferences held at Fordham University and they are a tribute to the work that has been done in that institution over many years to expand our knowledge and understanding of medieval women, adopting an interdisciplinary approach and using a wide range of sources. The earlier seminal collection established a number of themes and methodologies which remain central to today's lines of research. The influence of feminism, sociological and anthropological approaches, as well as the interdependence of literature and history, were all recognised as important by the editors in 1988. There was also a conscious move away from an exclusive focus on aristocratic women who exercised power through the traditional agency of public patronage, and, instead, a recognition of the importance of female networks and alliances as sources of power and influence in a private or domestic context, especially in the home. Both collections seek to challenge the dominant historical or ‘master’ narrative which excludes the majority of women, and to find new ways of looking at, and recording, the past to include reference to wider socio-economic groups outside the political elite. So what has changed in the intervening fifteen years? Alongside the value of gender studies, there is an increasing recognition of the need to study women alongside men in order to provide a more meaningful context for understanding the opportunities for women to exercise power, but also an increasing awareness of the limitations imposed by society on their actions beyond the home. One thrust of recent research has been to seek to identify a female subculture partly through the study of texts written for women or by women such as the Ancrene Wisse or Guide for Anchoresses and other saints' lives. This is particularly pertinent when exploring female spirituality and mysticism which took on a distinctive character in the late medieval period and opened up opportunities for women to assert their independence and shape their lives outside male control. That can be studied by reference to specific female saints adopted by women for particular purposes, such as the veneration of St Margaret as a protector during the tribulations of childbirth. Another popular female saint in late medieval England was St Anne, venerated in association with her daughter, the Virgin Mary. Late medieval visual images in wall paintings, stained glass, sculpture and manuscript illuminations depicting St Anne teaching the Virgin to read reinforce the idea of the importance of mothers as educators of their children. The power of women as book owners was first explored by Susan Groag Bell in the 1988 collection and since then has proved to be a particularly fruitful area of interdisciplinary investigation. No collection of essays on the theme of women and power would be complete without reference to the writings of Christine de Pizan. Her treatment of the figure of Dame Nature in her Lavision provides the strongest evidence for the power of women portrayed in literature. Dame Nature used her natural intellectual ability as a creative force, thus countering the view that scholarship and writing were unnatural activities for women. The value of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of medieval women's activities and culture is now well established. These essays make reference to a wide range of written and visual sources as well as indicating the value of archaeological evidence to our understanding of the lives of medieval women. An interesting example of this approach is provided by Sarah Rees Jones's essay on the influence of women on the design of urban homes focused on late medieval York. She demonstrates how documentary research can be combined with the study of the ground plans of buildings in order to understand the differing use of domestic space by male and female owners or tenants. The diversity of subject matter and approach is both a strength and a weakness of this thought-provoking collection of essays. It is difficult to digest such a wide range of material and methodology but an indication is given here of the wide scope for future research

Agency (philosophy · Art · Art history · Context (archaeology · Elite · Feminism · Institution · Literature · Media studies · Middle Ages · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Theme (computing · Tribute · Value (mathematics · Gender Studies · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Law