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Writing Women in the English Middle Ages

Module description

Writing Women focuses on literature produced by, for, and about women in the English Middle Ages. The five main segments of the syllabus focus on (and explore the relationship between) Exemplary Women, Translating Women, Praying Women, Travelling Women, and Recording Women. The module traces the activity of women as authors, translators, pilgrims, and keepers of household and dynastic memory, alongside debates over female authorship, reading, and agency. These themes will be examined through the works of authors including Marie de France, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and Geoffrey Chaucer, among others, in relation to contexts including visual and material culture.

Module aims - intentions of the module

To introduce you to a range of canonical and lesser-known works of medieval English literature, centring on examples of women as authors, readers, and protagonists. You will examine the connections between texts and contexts, and explore a range of texts written by, for, and about medieval women. The module is also designed to develop your skills in researching and writing about medieval culture.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate an advanced appreciation of specific authors and works of the medieval period
• 2. Demonstrate an advanced appreciation of the literary and cultural history of the medieval period
• 3. Demonstrate an advanced capacity to relate medieval texts to their cultural contexts, including visual and material culture

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Demonstrate a sophisticated and intellectually mature ability to analyse the literature an earlier era and to relate its concerns and its modes of expression to its historical context
• 5. Demonstrate an advanced and autonomous ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary texts
• 6. Demonstrate an advanced and precise ability to work from the detail of literary texts, with a full appreciation of their formal aspects.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Through essay-writing, demonstrate advanced research and bibliographic skills, an advanced and intellectually mature capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument and to write clear and correct prose.
• 8. Through research for module work, essays, and presentations demonstrate an advanced proficiency in information retrieval and analysis.
• 9. Through research, discussion, and essay writing demonstrate an advanced and intellectually mature capacity to question assumptions, to distinguish between fact and opinion, and to critically reflect on your own learning process

Syllabus plan

While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Translating Women: Lais, Fables, and Legends
• Exemplary Women: Saintly and Heroic Women in Middle English Texts
• Praying Women: Visionaries and Anchoresses
• Travelling Women: Real and Imagined Pilgrimage
• Recording Women: Epistolary and Manuscript Communities

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Core Reading:

• Geoffrey Chaucer, The Riverside Chaucer, third edition (Oxford, 2008)
• Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, trans. Barry Windeatt (Oxford, 2015)
• Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, trans. Anthony Bale (Oxford, 2015)
• Marie de France, Poetry, trans. Dorothy Gilbert (Norton, 2015)
• Heroic Women from the Old Testament in Middle English Verse [TEAMS]
• Middle English Legends of Women Saints [TEAMS]

Other readings will be supplied in class or made available online

Secondary Reading:

• Carolyn Dinshaw and David Wallace, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing (Cambridge, 2003)
• D. H. Green, Women Readers in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2007)
• Rebecca Krug, Reading Families: Women's Literate Practice in Late Medieval England (Cornell, 2002)
• Carolyne Larrington, ed, Women and Writing in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook (Routledge, 1995)
• Tory Vandeventer Pearman, Women and Disability in Medieval Literature (Palgrave, 2010)
• Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, et al., eds, Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts in Late Medieval Britain (Brepols, 2000)

Key words search

Medieval, Middle Ages, women, manuscripts, pilgrimage, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Marie de France, Chaucer