Women and Literature in Britain, 1150 1500

This collection of essays offers a pioneering review of women's access to literary culture in medieval Britain, and their representation within it. The rise of female literacy and women's activities as writers, patrons and readers, are examined in the context of wider questions of orality and literacy. The representation of women in different literary genres, secular and religious, shows the ways in which their position was understood in a variety of roles, as lovers, mothers and saints. This revised edition, newly available in paperback, includes a unique chronology offering a woman-centred perspective on historical and literary events before 1500, together with a guide to further reading.