Female Writers in Medieval Times: Gender Dissolution and Inadvertent Subversion

How did medieval women writers break out of stereotypes?

Why are issues of gender so delightfully unclear in their writing?

How does queer theory relate to their literary production?

This course will introduce the participant to issues of gender in medieval women´s visionary literature. By way of Judith Butler´s contemporary book Gender Trouble, we will first look at the basics of queer theory, then enter the strange and fascinating medieval world where nothing, particularly male and female roles, is quite like we know it.

These women not only found ways to educate themselves, they also managed to escape prescribed roles and dedicate their lives to mysticism and writing. We will examine how they did this and what their life- and writing styles had in common. We will then look deeper into the issues of gender. This will be done by reading critical essays and books written by present-day scholars.

Armed with a greater understanding of the historical context and complexity of the writers´ subjects, imagery and symbolism, there will be an opportunity to focus on two of the medieval mystics: Julian of Norwich, a fourteenth-century English anchorite, and Mechthild of Magdeburg, a thirteenth-century Germany Beguine. Lastly, the student will decide if queer theory can be applied to this radically different time period.

Program:
1. Introduction to Judith Butler´s queer theory
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

2. Medieval women writers´ historical context and general characteristics I
Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff, Medieval Women´s Visionary Literature

3. Medieval women writers´ historical context and general characteristics II
Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff, Medieval Women´s Visionary Literature

4. An overview of gender issues in medieval times
Caroline Walker Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion

5. An examination of sexuality issues in the Middle Ages through queering
Karma Lochrie, Constructing Medieval Sexuality

6. A reading and analysis of a visionary anchorite: Julian of Norwich.
Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

7. A reading and analysis of a mystical Beguine: Mechthild of Magdeburg
Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Flowing Light of the Godhead

8. Queering the writers´ production and conclusions