Medieval Women Writers and Subversive Literature: Radical Women Past and Present

Catalog description

This course explores the connections between gender and literary expression with a focus on medieval women writers from late antiquity to the fifteenth century. We will examine the social, cultural, and literary patterns linking the lives of medieval women writers with their works. Medieval women writers tend to express different attitudes and concerns than those associated with medieval European literature and culture, nevertheless, their attitudes and concerns parallel ideologies expressed by modern women writers. The course aims to introduce medieval women writers by juxtaposing their medieval texts with modern texts written by contemporary women that express similar themes in a more contemporary setting. Some of these themes are art and freedom, importance of community building miracles, prophecies, and body politics. We will discuss the ways these themes have changed from medieval times to the present and the ways in which women continue to face similar struggles. The medieval women writers include:Marie de France, Hildegard of Bingen, and Catherine of Siena; the modern women include the visionary girls in Garabandal and Ana Castillo. Ana Castillo, in particular uses the stories of medieval women writers and rewrites them for a contemporary US Latina audience.