A multi-disciplinary re-evaluation of the role of women religious in the Middle Ages, both inside and outside the cloister.
Medieval women found diverse ways of expressing their religious aspirations: within the cloister as members of monastic and religious orders, within the world as vowesses, or between the two as anchorites. Via a range of disciplinary approaches, from history, archaeology, literature, and the visual arts, the essays in this volume challenge received scholarly narratives and re-examine the roles of women religious: their authority and agency within their own communities and the wider world; their learning and literacy; place in the landscape; and visual culture. Overall, they highlight the impact of women on the world around them, the significance of their presence in communities, and the experiences and legacies they left behind.
Arvustused
In conclusione, il volume curato da Curran e Burton riesce ad offrire un diorama di ricerche stimolanti, capaci di fornire nuove prospettive sul modo in cui le donne si ritagliarono il proprio spazio nella società medievale attraverso l'esperienza religiosa." (In conclusion, the volume edited by Curran and Burton successfully offers a panorama of stimulating research that provides new perspectives on how women carved out their own space in medieval society through religious experience.) * JOURNAL OF MADIAE AETATIS SODALICIUM * Medieval Women Religious makes a statement from its very title. The unexpected inversion of 'religious women' into a more empowering phrase is meant to be an uncomfortable prelude to a book that challenges readers to defy categories... Providing a state-of-the-art of the field, the editors justify their daring decision to avoid using 'nun' or 'nunnery' throughout the volume and to replace these terms instead with more collegial, agency-charged ones such as community or house. * JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL MONASTIC STUDIES * Likely to be useful as background reading or an entryway into research projects... Medieval Women Religious c.800-c.1500: New Perspectives constantly reminds us that those it studies were real women with individual life experiences that often defy simple categorization. * STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE TEACHING (SMART) * Offers a refreshing contextualisation of how women lived under medieval monasticism. The volume succeeds in inserting women into the wider narrative of the religious institutions of medieval Europe by analysing how these women lived in their own right and not simply in comparison to their male counterparts. * CERÆ: AN AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES *
List of Figures
List of Contributors
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
KIMM CURRAN AND JANET BURTON
1. Reform, Change, and Renewal: Women Religious in the Central Middle Ages,
800-1050 - STEVEN VANDERPUTTEN
2. New Movements of the 12th Century: Diversity, Belonging, and Order(s) -
KATHARINE SYKES
3. Change and Renewal: Mendicants and Tertiaries in Later Medieval Europe -
ALISON MORE
4. On the Fringes: Anchorites - CATE GUNN
5. `Quasi-religious': Vowesses - LAURA RICHMOND
6. Authority and Agency: Women as Heads of Religious Houses - ELIZABETH A.
LEHFELDT
7. Women Religious, Secular Households: The Outside World and Crossing
Boundaries in the Later Middle Ages - RACHEL M. DELMAN
8. Literacies, Learning, and Communal Reform: The Case of Alijt Bake - DIANA
DENISSEN
9. Family and Friends: Gift Giving, Books, and Book Inscriptions in Women's
Religious Communities - SARA CHARLES
10. Communities of Medieval Religious Women and Their Landscapes - YVONNE
SEALE
11. Materiality and Archaeology of Women Religious - TRACY COLLINS
12. Between Collective Memory and Individual Remembrance in Women's Religious
Communities - MERCEDES PÉREZ VIDAL
Select Bibliography
Index
KIMM CURRAN is an independent researcher. Her expertise is in communities of women religious in Scotland, medieval women's monastic landscapes and heritage, and prosopography. JANET BURTON is Professor of Medieval History at University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter and the author of many books and articles on monastic history. KIMM CURRAN is an independent researcher. Her expertise is in communities of women religious in Scotland, medieval women's monastic landscapes and heritage, and prosopography. JANET BURTON is Professor of Medieval History at University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter and the author of many books and articles on monastic history. CATE GUNN is an independent scholar who has written on thirteenth-century anchoritic and pastoral literature.
