Maistresse of My Wit : Medieval Women, Modern Scholars

This volume addresses the intersections between three significant strands which have emerged within contemporary medieval literary scholarship: (i) medievalist scholarship, with its analysis of the intellectual, cultural and political post-medieval constructions of the Middle Ages; (ii) critical medieval scholarship, with its focus on methodological reflexivity, scholarly "situatedness" and theoretical concerns such as subjectivity, power and embodiment; and (iii) feminist medieval scholarship, with its interest in representations of gender in medieval texts and the reception of medieval women's writing by modern readers. The essays deal with the complex and often reciprocal relationship between contemporary medievalists and the medieval women writers on whom they work. The essays are not personal or "confessional" but examine ways in which working on medieval authors has led scholars to transform their own authorial and editorial methodologies, their own critical approaches to issues such as gender, authorship, religion, motherhood and their interpretations of the cultures in which they live.