Barking Abbey and Medieval Literary Culture: Authorship and Authority in a Female Community
Author(s): Jennifer N Brown (Editor, Contributor), Donna Alfano Bussell (Editor, Contributor), Alexandra Barratt (Contributor), Anne Bagnall Yardley (Contributor), Delbert W Russell (Contributor), Diane Auslander (Contributor), Emma Berat (Contributor), Jill Stevenson (Contributor), Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (Contributor), Kay Brainerd Slocum (Contributor), Lisa M. Lisa M. Weston (Contributor), Stephanie Hollis (Contributor), Professor Thelma Fenster (Contributor), Dr Thomas O'Donnell (Contributor)
Publisher: York Medieval Press
Publication Date: 15 Nov. 2012
Edition: Illustrated
Language: English
Print length: 350 pages
ISBN-10: 1903153433
ISBN-13: 9781903153437
Book Description
[An] admirable collection. . For anyone interested in what Wogan-Browne calls “the historiography of female community”, nuns’ libraries and literacy, and Barking abbey itself, this first-class collection of essays is essential reading. CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW Essays on the texts produced at Barking Abbey – one of the most important centres for writings in the Middle Ages. Barking Abbey (founded c. 666) is hugely significant for those studying the literary production by and patronage of medieval women. It had one of the largest libraries of any English nunnery, and a history of women’s education from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Dissolution; it was also the home of women writers of Latin and Anglo-Norman works, as well as of many Middle English manuscript books. The essays in this volume map its literary history, offering a wide-ranging examination of its liturgical, historio-hagiographical, devotional, doctrinal, and administrative texts, with a particular focus on the important hagiographies produced there during the twelfth century. It thusmakes a major contribution to the literary and cultural history of medieval England and a rich resource for the teaching of women’s texts. Professor JENNIFER N. BROWN teaches at Marymount Manhattan College; Professor DONNA ALFANO BUSSELL teaches at University of Illinois-Springfield. Contributors: Diane Auslander, Alexandra Barratt, Emma Bérat, Jennifer N. Brown, Donna A. Bussell, Thelma Fenster, Stephanie Hollis, Thomas O’Donnell, Delbert Russell, Jill Stevenson, Kay Slocum, Lisa Weston, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Anne B. Yardley
Editorial Reviews
Review
To be welcomed as a significant study of female literacy and monastic life in the Middle Ages. ― ENGLISH
A strong resource. ―
MAGISTRA 19.1, Summer 2013
[E]minent scholars from various disciplines present a variety of topics and approaches, that, taken together, emphasize the abbey’s importance. The result is a volume that merits a place alongside other works on women’s religious culture in the Middle Ages. […] Recommended. ―
CHOICE
About the Author
JENNIFER N. BROWN is Professor of English and World Literatures at Marymount Manhattan College.
KAY BRAINERD SLOCUM is Emerita Professor at Capital University, Ohio.
THOMAS O’DONNELL is Associate Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Fordham University, New York, USA.
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