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Hermits, Wives, Queens, and Schemers: Women in Medieval & Early Modern Literature - AAAPHD003E

Anglický název:	Hermits, Wives, Queens, and Schemers: Women in Medieval & Early Modern Literature
Zajišťuje:	Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
Fakulta:	Filozofická fakulta
Platnost:	od 2025
Semestr:	zimní
Body:	0
E-Kredity:	5
Způsob provedení zkoušky:	zimní s.:
Rozsah, examinace:	zimní s.:0/2, Zk [HT]
Počet míst:	neurčen / neurčen (neurčen)
Minimální obsazenost:	neomezen
4EU+:	ne
Virtuální mobilita / počet míst pro virtuální mobilitu:	ne
Kompetence:
Stav předmětu:	nevyučován
Jazyk výuky:	angličtina
Způsob výuky:	prezenční
Úroveň:
Poznámka:	předmět je možno zapsat mimo plán povolen pro zápis po webu

Garant:	Mgr. Dominika Kecsöová Mgr. Michaela Válková

Rozvrh Nástěnka

Anotace - angličtina

DESCRIPTION 
As the name of this course suggests, its main concern will be writing by and about women from around the 11th to 
the 17th century. The medieval part of the seminar will cover predominantly texts in Middle English, with one short 
introductory lesson on Old English material. Familiarity with these languages is not necessary, since full or partial 
translations will be provided. The main aim of this part will be the analysis and comparison of various ways 
women are depicted by male authors across different genres and how they describe their lives in their own words. 
We will look at various ideals and ideas of femininity presented in these works, as well as ways in which they are 
subverted. An added bonus may be an increased ease with material in Middle English by the end of the course. 
The early modern part of the seminar focuses on early modern women writers across different genres and the 
depiction of women in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. We will cover professional lives of women with Isabella 
Whitney’s lamentations, religious ruminations by Rachel Speght, and private and public concerns of Elizabeth I. As 
such, the main discourse regarding women participating in public life will be discussed. Following that, we will 
focus on the representation of women in early modern drama. We will discuss three plays by William 
Shakespeare and The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. In Othello, our focus will be on the character of Emilia 
and her plea for gender equality; in Macbeth, we will discuss different feminist interpretations of Lady Macbeth and 
in Antony and Cleopatra, we will focus on the complexity of the eponymous heroine. In John Webster’s The 
Duchess of Malfi we will direct our attention to Webster’s criticism of the attempts to limit female sexuality. 
 
ASSESSMENT 
In order to complete the course, students must regularly submit a short feedback on weekly readings (200-300 
words) with maximum of two missed submissions. Active participation in class is expected as well. 
 
PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME: 
Week 1 – Introduction 
 Introduction: discussion of programme and assessment; introduction to historical/literary period 
covered in the course; definition of key terms and theoretical approaches. 
 
Week 2 – Paragons among Peers: St. Mary of Egypt and Queen Emma 
 “Death of St. Mary of Egypt” from Ælfric's Lives of Saints 
Translation available at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/%C3%86lfric 
%27s_Lives_of_Saints/Death_of_St._Mary_of_Egypt 
OE version provided in Moodle 
 Skeat, Walter W. (ed. And trans.). Aelfric's Lives of Saints : being a set of sermons on saint's days 
formerly observed by the English Church. London: Early English Text Society, 1881-1900. Available in full at 
https://archive.org/details/aelfricslivesofs01aelfuoft 
 
 Encomium Emmae Reginae [excerpts provided on Moodle] 
Campbell, Alistair (ed. and trans.). The Encomium Emmae Reginae. Cambridge: Cambridge 
University Press, 1998. Available at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.185337/page/n5/mode/2up 
 
This session will compare two differing, if equally unique, accounts of women’s lives: the life of St. Mary of Egypt 
will hopefully form a good basis for our later discussion of anchoresses, and Encomium Emmae Reginae 
presents a powerful woman in a secular setting, which is an interesting point of comparison (even though we may 
perhaps discover more similarities than contrasts). 
 
Week 3 – How to be an Anchoress: Ancrene Wisse 
 short excerpts from parts 2, 4, 7, and 8 
 Hasenfratz, R. Ancrene Wisse. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000. Available at 
https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/hasenfratz-ancrene-wisse 
 
This class will cover the basic outer rule of anchoresses, the importance of control over her desires/body, her 
relationship to Christ, and the romance influence. The excerpts will be 8 pages at the most, hopefully a 
manageable lenght. 
 
Week 4 – In Her Own Words: Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love 
 short texts – chapters 2-7 [on the visions]; long text chapter 60 and 61 [on the motherhood of Christ]) 
[excerpts provided on Moodle] 
 Baker, Denise N. (ed.). The Showings of Julian of Norwich. New York/London: W. W. Norton, 2005. 
 Crampton, G. R. The Shewings of Julian of Norwich. New York: University of Rochester, 1994. Available 
at https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/the-shewings-of-julian-of-norwich-introduction 
 Spearing, E. (trans.). Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. London: Penguin Books, 1998. 
 Watson, N. and J. Jenkins. The Writings of Julian of Norwich: A vision showed to a devout woman and A 
revelation of love. University Park, Penn: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006. 
 
In this session, we will compare Ancrene Wisse and Julian – the ideal anchoritic experience vs. the mystical 
source of the anchoress as described and explained by her very own words. We will cover the first (and more 
immediate) account of her visions and compare it with Julian’s later interpretations of them. We will also briefly 
look at how she problematizes straightforward ideas of gender through Christ. 
 
Week 5 – The Lady in Her Bower: Secular Poetry 
 I Have a Lady (The Descryvyng of a Fair Lady), available at 
https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/forni-chaucerian-apocrypha-descryvyng-of-a-fair-lady 
 Forni, K. (ed.). The Chaucerian Apocrypha: A Selection. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute 
Publications, 2005. Available at https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/forni-chaucerian-apocrypha 
 
 
 Assembly of Ladies [shortened version available on Moodle], full version at 
https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/pearsall-asssembly-of-ladies-introduction 
 Pearsall, D. (ed.) he Floure and the Leafe, The Assemblie of Ladies, and The Isle of Ladies. Kalamazoo: 
Medieval Institute Publications, 1990. Available at https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/pearsall-asssembly-of- 
ladies-introduction 
 
Turning to secular poetry, we will partially refer back to the romance element of Ancrene Wisse; we will discuss 
courtly manners and courtly love in these two poems with reference to Andreas Capellanus. This class will 
introduce the genre of the dream vision. Mainly, however, we will attempt to answer the question “How does the 
ideal lady differ from the religious ideal of the saint or the anchoress?” 
 
Week 6 – The Wife at Home and Abroad: Margery Kempe and How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter 
 The Book of Margery Kempe – short excerpts on marital and daily life, visions, and travels 
 Staley, L. (ed.) The Book of Margery Kempe. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1996. Available 
at https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/staley-book-of-margery-kempe-introduction 
 
 How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter – available at https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/salisbury- 
trials-and-joys-how-the-goode-wife-taught-hyr-doughter 
 
In this class, we will discuss to what degree Margery Kempe presents “real, daily life” of married women in the late 
Middle Ages. We will analyse Kempe’s interactions with her peers and their perception of her and compare her to 
the ideal presented by the didactic How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter. 
 
Week 7 - Professional Women in London: Isabella Whitney’s Will and Testament 
 
Considered by some the first professional woman writer in England, Isabella Whitney’s Will and Testament is a 
farewell letter to the loved and despised London. Giving a detailed description of different parts of the city, Whitney 
skilfully navigates the working realities of an independent woman in the 16th century London. 
 
 Primary Reading: 
Isabella Whitney, Will and Testament available at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45991/will-and- 
testament. 
 
 Please reference also: 
The Map of Early Modern London: https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/agas.htm. 
 
Week 8 - Private and Public: The Poetry of Elizabeth I 
 
The Virgin Queen found a way to thrive in a patriarchal society by exploring different ways of gender representation. 
When she states in her speech at Tilbury in 1588 that she has both the body of a woman and the heart and 
stomach of a king, Elizabeth demonstrates her ability to inhabit those gender stereotypes which were regarded as 
mutually exclusive. In her poetry, Elizabeth discusses her political ambitions as well as her more private 
ruminations. 
 
 Primary Reading 
Elizabeth I, Tilbury Speech available at https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/queen-elizabeth-speech-troops-tilbury. 
Elizabeth I, “The Doubt of Future Foes” available at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44219/the-doubt-of- 
future-foes. 
Elizabeth I, “On Monsieur’s Departure” available at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44221/on- 
monsieurs-departure. 
Elizabeth I, “When I Was Fair and Young” available at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45657/when-i-was- 
fair-and-young. 
 
Week 9 - The Querelle des Femmes: Rachel Speght’s A Mouzell for Melastomus 
 
The Woman Question addressed the nature of women and their position in society and constituted a popular 
genre during the early modern times. Religious and secular argumentations found its place in pamphlets in which 
people would express their opinions on the “inherent” nature of women, their relationship to men, and their biblical 
purpose. Many used the pamphlet form to circulate sexist attacks on women; Joseph Swetnam’s misogynistic 
essay The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women was one of them. Rachel Speght decided 
to fight his argumentation and in 1617 published her answer to Swetnam’s pamphlet A Mouzell for Melastomus. In 
A Mouzell for Melastomus, Speght uses Swetnam’s own argument against him, showing the intellectual deficiency 
of his argumentation and reinterprets religious assertions about the inferiority of women. 
 
 Primary Reading 
Rachel Speght, A Mouzell for Melastomus available at 
https://pages.uoregon.edu/dluebke/WesternCiv102/SpeghtMouzell1617.htm. 
Joseph Swetnam, The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women available at 
https://pages.uoregon.edu/dluebke/WesternCiv102/SwetnamArraignment1615.htm. 
 
Week 10 - “Unsex me here:” Lady Macbeth’s Gender Fluidity in Macbeth 
 
As one of Shakespeare’s strongest heroines, Lady Macbeth is truly her husband’s “dearest partner of greatness.” 
Her eloquent and cunning argumentation, ambition and willpower set into motion the horrors which will lead to her 
elevation to a Queen at the cost of her sanity. Lady Macbeth can be interpreted via the lens of cultural feminism – 
focusing on her loss of her child and her postnatal depression – or via trans lens – concentrating on her as a 
non-binary person with desire for power, influence, and status. 
 
 Primary Reading 
William Shakespeare, Macbeth 
 
Week 11 - “Let husbands know / Their wives have sense like them:” Emilia’s Plea for Equality in Othello 
 
Emilia lingers at the background of Othello as a supportive character; a tool of her abusive husband, Iago. 
Complicit in her husband’s scheming and yet not knowledgeable of its extent, she seems to be the perfect 
passive and obedient shadow of Iago. As the drama climaxes and Emilia realises the mortal danger to 
Desdemona - as Othello also becomes abusive - Emilia finds her voice and delivers a powerful soliloquy. Even 
though she fails at saving Desdemona, she identifies the villains of the piece and ensures that justice be served. 
 
 Primary Reading 
William Shakespeare, Othello 
 
 
Week 12 – “The misery of us that are born great! / We are forc'd to woo, because none dare woo us:” The Female 
Sexuality in The Duchess of Malfi 
 
In The Duchess of Malfi, Webster introduces a modern protagonist who is determined to live her life as she 
pleases. As her brothers keep trying to impose limits on her sexuality and control her, their viciousness grows 
stronger as the full level of their depravity reveals itself via their vile speeches and murder. In this feminist revenge 
tragedy, gender roles are continuously questioned and reversed. 
 
 Primary Reading 
John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi available at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2232/2232-h/2232- 
h.htm#link2H_4_0002. 
 
Week 13 - “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety:” Cleopatra’s Ambition in Antony and 
Cleopatra 
 
A great tragedy of love and politics, Antony and Cleopatra tells the story of a great woman and a great man caught 
between their passion for each other and their individual political ambitions. One of Shakespeare’s most 
outspoken heroines, Cleopatra freely displays her sexuality, intellect, and power throughout the play, making her 
one of the most complex Shakespearean characters. Constantly torn between being interpreted as a seductress 
or a powerful politician, the question arises: why could she not be both? 
 
 Primary Reading 
William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra 
 
FURTHER READING 
 
Aers, D. and L. Staley. The Powers of the Holy: Religion, Politics, and Gender in Late Medieval English Culture. 
University Park, Penn: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996. 
 
Balizet, A. M. “‘Drowned in Blood’: Honor, Bloodline, and Domestic Ideology in The Duchess of Malfi and El Médico 
de Su Honra.” Comparative Literature Studies 49, no. 1 (2012): 23–49. 
https://doi.org/10.5325/complitstudies.49.1.0023. 
 
Beilin, E.V. Redeeming Eve : Women Writers of the English Renaissance. Princeton Legacy Library. Princeton, 
New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987. 
 
Bennett, J. M., and R. M. Karras. The Oxford Handbook Of Women And Gender In Medieval Europe. Oxford: Oxford 
University Press, 2013. 
 
Blamires, Alcuin, Karen Pratt, and C. William Marx. Woman defamed and woman defended: an anthology of 
medieval texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. 
 
Bowman, Thomas D. “IN DEFENSE OF EMILIA.” The Shakespeare Association Bulletin 22, no. 3 (1947): 99–104. 
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23675299. 
 
Brusberg-Kiermeier, Stefani. “Transgressing gender and genre: Isabella Whitney’s appropriation of London.” 
Research Outreach, no. 137 (2023): 10-13. https://doi.org/10.32907/RO-137-4973122647. 
 
Bynum, C. W. Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkely: 
University of California Press, 1988. 
 
Callaghan, Dympna. The Impact of Feminism in English Renaissance Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 
2006. 
 
Capern, Amanda L. The Routledge History of Women in Early Modern Europe. London: Routledge, 2019. 
 
Carlson, C. L. and Weisl, A. J. Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the Middle Ages. New York: St. Martin’s 
Press, 1999. 
 
Coletti, T. Mary Magdalene and the Drama of the Saints: Theater, Gender, and Religion in Late Medieval England. 
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. 
 
Cunningham, Dolora G. “The Characterization of Shakespeare’s Cleopatra.” Shakespeare Quarterly 6, no. 1 
(1955): 9–17. https://doi.org/10.2307/2866047. 
 
Erler, M. C. Women, Reading and Piety in Late Medieval England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 
 
Evans, R., and L. Johnson. Feminist Readings In Middle English Literature: The Wife Of Bath And All Her Sect. 
Routledge, 1994. 
 
Fitz, L. T. “Egyptian Queens and Male Reviewers: Sexist Attitudes in Antony and Cleopatra Criticism.” Shakespeare 
Quarterly 28, no. 3 (1977): 297–316. https://doi.org/10.2307/2869080. 
 
Green, Janet M. “‘I My Self’: Queen Elizabeth I’s Oration at Tilbury Camp.” The Sixteenth Century Journal 28, no. 2 
(1997): 421–45. https://doi.org/10.2307/2543451. 
 
Greene, James J. “Macbeth: Masculinity as Murder.” American Imago 41, no. 2 (1984): 155–80. 
http://www.jstor.org/stable/26303589. 
 
Grennan, Eamon. “The Women’s Voices in ‘Othello’: Speech, Song, Silence.” Shakespeare Quarterly 38, no. 3 
(1987): 275–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/2870503. 
 
Herbert McAvoy, L. Authority And The Female Body In The Writings Of Julian Of Norwich And Margery Kempe. D.S. 
Brewer, 2004. 
 
Hollander, Barbara Gottfried. Elizabeth I: Queen of England. New York: Britannica Educational Publishing in 
association with Rosen Educational Services, 2018. 
 
Jankowski, Theodora A. “Defining/Confining the Duchess: Negotiating the Female Body in John Webster’s ‘The 
Duchess of Malfi.’” Studies in Philology 87, no. 2 (1990): 221–45. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4174360. 
 
Joubin, Alexa Alice. “Trans as Method: The Sociality of Gender and Shakespeare.” Borrowers and Lenders: The 
Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation 14.2 (2023): 3-21. https://ajoubin.org/research/trans-as-method/. 
 
Luckyj, Christina. “‘A Mouzell for Melastomus’ in Context: Rereading the Swetnam-Speght Debate.” English Literary 
Renaissance 40, no. 1 (2010): 113–31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43447683. 
 
Luckyj, Christina. “‘Great Women of Pleasure’: Main Plot and Subplot in The Duchess of Malfi.” Studies in English 
Literature, 1500-1900 27, no. 2 (1987): 267–83. https://doi.org/10.2307/450466. 
 
Meale, C. M. Women and Literature in Britain, 1150-1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 
Miller, S. A. Medieval Monstrosity And The Female Body. Routledge, 2010. 
 
Munro, Robert. “Lady Macbeth: A Psychological Sketch.” The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 21, no. 1 (1887): 
30–36. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25668126. 
 
Peters, C. Patterns of Piety: Women, Gender, and Religion in Late Medieval and Reformation England. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press, 2003. 
 
Park, Jennifer. “Discandying Cleopatra: Preserving Cleopatra’s Infinite Variety in Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and 
Cleopatra.’” Studies in Philology 113, no. 3 (2016): 595–633. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43921900. 
 
Phillippy, Patricia. A History of Early Modern Women's Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 
 
Rackin, Phyllis. Shakespeare and Women. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. 
 
Ramsey, Jarold. “The Perversion of Manliness in Macbeth.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 13, no. 2 
(1973): 285–300. https://doi.org/10.2307/449740. 
 
Speight, Helen. “Rachel Speght’s Polemical Life.” Huntington Library Quarterly 65, no. 3/4 (2002): 449–63. 
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3817984. 
 
Summit, Jennifer. “‘The Arte of a Ladies Penne’: Elizabeth I and the Poetics of Queenship.” English Literary 
Renaissance 26, no. 3 (1996): 395–422. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43447528. 
 
Travitsky, Betty. “The ‘Wyll and Testament’ of Isabella Whitney.” English Literary Renaissance 10, no. 1 (1980): 
76–94. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43446961. 
 
Wada, Y. A Companion to “Ancrene Wisse.” Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003. 
 
Wall, Wendy. “Isabella Whitney and the Female Legacy.” ELH 58, no. 1 (1991): 35–62. 
https://doi.org/10.2307/2873393. 
 
 
Watt, D. Medieval Women in their Communities. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1997.

Poslední úprava: Kecsöová Dominika, Mgr. (05.10.2024)