‘Sabrina Corbellini, Cultures of Religious Reading in the Late Middle Ages. Instructing the Soul, Feeding the Spirit, and Awakening the Passion. (Turnhout, Brepols, 2013), in Quaerendo. A Journal Devoted to Manuscripts and Printed Books 44 (2014), 207-215. (original) (raw)
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Challenging the Paradigms: Holy Writ and Lay Readers in Late Medieval Europe
Church History and Religious Culture, 2013
This introductory chapter summarizes the main results of the research project 'Holy Writ and Lay Readers. A Social History of Vernacular Bible Translations in the Late Middle Ages' (ioo8-io 13). The project, funded by the European Research Council and the University of Groningen, aimed at reconstructing the process of translation and dissemination oí vernacular Bibles in three European areas (Italy, France, and the Low Countries) during the late Middle Ages (from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century). Challenging paradigmatic views and research traditions on severe restrictions of the circulation of vernacular Bible by the medieval Church, the project has chosen to specifically concentrate on readers and readerships and investigates the varied modes of approach taken by lay and non-professional users of the Holy Writ. The emphasis is laid on the dynamic approach of lay believers, male and female votaries, primarily involved in wordly activities and experiencing their religious life within the framework of family, marriage, and professional activities. Keywords Bible translations; medieval Europe; religious reading; religious cultures; social history '' "Nam ante 30 annos nuUus legit bibliam, eratque omnibus incognita. Prophetae errant innominati ñeques possibiles intellectu. Nam ego, cumm essem viginti annorum, nondum vidi bibliam. Abritrabar nullum esse euangelium aut epistolam, nisi quae in postillis dominicalibus errant scripta. Tandem in bibliotheca inveni bibliam, et quamprimum me in monasterium contuli, incepi legere, relegere et iterum legere bibliam cum summa admiratione Doctoris Staupitii." The text, recorded in Luther's Table Talks, is cited and translated by Gow, 'The Contested History of a Book' (see above, n. 1), 19. See also
Medieval feminist newsletter, 1996
Devotional reading forms a large part of the literary culture of medieval and early modern women and much work has been done in recent decades in tracing and understanding this aspect of women's history. Bartlett aims to examine devotional texts circulating in England between 1350and 1550for what they may have offered to female readers. Her argument is that devotional reading operates within a pervasively misogynistic framework, but offers women alternatives through the complexities of reading itself (as argued by Fetterley and Butler)! and through interplay with other discourses. Three principal "counter-discourses" are identified: those of "courtesy" (as in narrative romance, lyric, and conduct books), "familiarity" (the use and development of the Constable, Giles, Three Studies in Medieval Religious andSocial Thought.
GENDER READING, AND TRUTH IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY: THE WOMAN IN THE MIRROR
SAME, 2020
The twelfth century witnessed the birth of modern western European literary tradition: major narrative works appeared in both French and in German, founding a literary culture independent of the Latin tradition of the church and Roman Antiquity. But what triggered the sudden interest in and new legitimization of written literature in these “vulgar tongues”? Does the explanation lie, as often claimed, in the interest of new female vernacular readers? Powell argues that a different appraisal of the evidence offers a window onto something more momentous and reaching well beyond the literary: not “women readers” but instead a reading act conceived of as female lies behind the polysemic identification of women as the audience of new media in the twelfth century. This woman is at the centre of a re-conception of Christian knowing, a veritable revolution in the mediation of knowledge and truth. By following this figure through detailed readings of key early works, Powell unveils a surprise, a new poetics of the body meant to embrace the capacities of new audiences and viewers of medieval literature and visual art.
Journal of Early Modern Studies, 2012
is article focuses on a common textual genre in early modern Catholic Europe conceived and produced in the context of a close spiritual director/penitent relationship, variously de ned as 'autobiografía por mandato', 'obedient writing', or 'autobiographical report', and so on. Starting out from the large number of studies of this text type, a number of considerations are made on two themes: 1) their speci city and the social practices underpinning them 2) the modalities and ways of partial or integral publication in print of some of them. An attempt will be made to highlight to what extent and how the intricate question of authorship(s) can be addressed. Special attention will be devoted to the somewhat widespread category (in comparison with 'autobiography') of the 'ego-document', meaning, by this term, any type of text in which an author or authoress, deliberately or unintentionally writes about his/her acts, thoughts and feelings.
Literature Compass, 2007
Feminist study of Middle English religious writings is a relatively new field, but it is a rich and well-developed one. Although the work of such pioneers as Eileen Edna Power set the stage in the early twentieth century, feminist scholarship of the corpus of medieval religious texts in English only emerged as a truly vibrant area of inquiry in the past twenty years. Indeed, the entry of such figures as Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich into the canon, marked iconically by their entries into the Norton Anthology of British Literature in 1986 and 1993 respectively, suggests at once how recent a scholarly development such work is and how strong an influence such scholarship has had on the study of Middle English literature. Using the cases of Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich as test cases, this essay explores the key debates that have driven and shaped feminist scholarship on Middle English religious texts over the past two decades, and it explores newly emergent trends. It examines the impact of psychoanalytic criticism on medieval feminist scholarship and interrogates the contributions made by scholars who embrace French feminist approaches. It addresses the paradigm shifts enacted by the groundbreaking work of Caroline Walker Bynum as well as the questions concerning gender and essentialism raised by her work. The importance of New Historicism in the field is also a key concern in the essay, as are new takes on historicist research, especially the work of scholars who are rethinking questions of historical periodization. Feminist approaches to medieval religious writing are not limited to scholarship focusing on texts by and for women. However, widespread assumptions about medieval women's incapacity to produce or comprehend texts worthy of serious scholarly consideration meant that for much of the twentieth century, Middle English religious texts by women, or primarily directed toward a female readership, were ignored. Accordingly, among the primary tasks of feminist scholars were overcoming the perception that such texts were not worthwhile objects of study and, concomitantly, making these texts readily available to scholars and students.