What medieval women writers, readers, and characters reveal about gender in the Middle Ages.
The ubiquity of women’s voices among the medieval canon demands a reevaluation of women’s place in medieval culture. Women’s Lives reveals that the reception of women in medieval literature, often models of political transgression, suggests that women embodied more radical equality, agency, and authority than we commonly understand. Contributors explore the lives and stories of well-known medieval women, such as Hildegard of Bingen and Teresa of Cartagena, as well as lesser-known women such as Al-Kahina and Liang Hongyu.
