Women's Writing in Middle English

A new edition of the most comprehensive and pedagogically sound anthology of women's writing from the Middle Ages

This impressive and pioneering anthology presents extracts in the original Middle English of the various kinds of medieval texts in which women were involved. It explores their place in medieval literary culture and invites readers to judge whether there is such a thing as `women's writing' in the Middle Ages.

Women's writing in any period remains of critical concern, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Alexandra Barratt's edition offers a wide range of texts from the period 1300-1500, including:

• Original texts written by women in the Middle Ages
• Texts translated by women in the Middle Ages
• Prayers, meditations, scriptural comment, and accounts of religious experiences
• Educational writings
• Romance, poetry

Each poem is given a headnote, giving details of composition, manuscript and sources. Full on-page annotation is provided giving details of allusions to contemporary religious, historical and social issues. A general introduction gives context to all the pieces and provides a penetrating account of the role of women in a burgeoning society of literary and cultural transmission