The Literary Subversions of Medieval Women

This study of medieval women as postcolonial writers defines the literary strategies of subversion by which they authorized their alterity within the dominant tradition. To dismantle a colonizing culture, they made public the private feminine space allocated by gender difference: they constructed 'unhomely' spaces. They inverted gender roles of characters to valorize the female; they created alternate idealized feminist societies and cultures, or utopias, through fantasy; and they legitimized female triviality the homely female space to provide autonomy. While these methodologies often overlapped in practice, they illustrate how cultures impinge on languages to create what Deleuze and Guattari have identified as a minor literature, specifically for women as dis-placed. Women writers discussed include Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, Hildegard of Bingen, Marie de France, Marguerite Porete, Catherine of Siena, Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, and Christine de Pizan.

'Chance has been a pioneer of feminist literary criticism on the Middle Ages ever since her book, Woman as Hero in Old English Literature, first appeared in the mid-1980s. Some two dozen books later, in the course of a distinguished career, Chance has accumulated a reputation not only for feminist scholarship, but also for her thoughtful and generous mentoring of two generations of women medievalists.The Literary Subversions of Medieval Women is the culmination of Chance's scholarship as a feminist medievalist, and the jewel in her crown.' - Geraldine Heng, Director of Medieval Studies at the University of Texas at Austin; Author of Empire of Magic: Medieval Romance and the Politics of Cultural Fantasy (2003)

"Chance's study is an incisive, eloquent, and erudite survey of the wide-ranging strategies which medieval women writers in Latin, French, German, and Italian deployed to turn the tables on the misogynist literary culture of their time, to restore in effect the abused ideal of a universal republic of letters. It combines the latest scholarship in critical and cultural studies, especially post-colonialist and feminist theory, with a sweeping, often breath-taking command of more traditional medievalist scholarship. It opens up, in a pioneering fashion, a new dialogue about women writers in medieval (and also modern) culture. One might not always agree with Chance nor does she expect this response but no one can fail to be stimulated by this deeply provocativestudy." - Jeff Richards, Professor of Romance Literatures, University of Wuppertal

'Chance has long been recognized as a leading scholar of the Middle Ages. This book is an exceptional achievement by a medievalist at the top of her game. Her work reinvigorates the study of important medieval women writers like Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, Marie de France, Marguerite Porete, Margery Kempe, and Julian of Norwich, suggesting exciting new directions for the discipline of medieval studies.' - Laurie Finke, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, Kenyon College

Jane Chance is Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Rice University, USA.