In 1984, Cambridge University Press published Peter Dronke’s outstanding and influential book, Women Writers of the Middle Ages: a critical study of texts from Perpetua († 203) to Marguerite Porete († 1310). Scholarly reviews of Dronke’s book were laudatory, but with the criticism that he hadn’t focused narrowly enough on women. Unfortunately, these women writers still remain under-appreciated.
Dronke’s Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Supplement; or, Medieval Women Writers’ Loving Concern for Men, aims to increase appreciation for medieval women writers. It documents and explores medieval women writers’ compassionate, strong, and independent efforts to affirm and value men’s masculinity. This supplement can help to make men students feel more welcomed in literature classes. It also shows the value of literary study to men and demonstrates that medieval women writers’ insights and imagination can help to improve men’s lives today.
The organization of this supplement follows the chapters in Women Writers of the Middle Ages. This supplement includes several articles on Marie de France. She deserves to be recognized and studied for her inspiring concern for men. A press release for this new book discusses the intellectual context of Dronke’s seminal work.
Chapter 1: From Perpetua to the Eighth Century
- Perpetua resolutely rejected her father’s pleas & got killed
- Thecla saved from her evil mother and terrifying death
- Thecla’s love for Paul brought her to God
- strong, independent, man-hating Aseneth became new woman
- ancient Greek epitaphs: Herais & Sozomene for their husbands
Chapter 2: Dhuoda
- Liber Manualis: Dhuoda wanted perfect son & provided handbook
- from Dhuoda to her son William: loving touch in text
- play of contrasts in Dhuoda’s learned work
- Dhuoda for fathers deprived of custody of their children
Chapter 3: Hrotsvitha
- Hrotsvit of Gandersheim on men in the Life of Saint Thais
- Hrotsvit with Gongolf empathized with Solomon and Marcolf
- Basilius & Gallicanus: Hrotsvit on men’s entitlement to love
- Calimachus: Ovidian teaching for sexually desperate men
Chapter 4: Personal Poetry by Women: the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
- medieval women’s love poetry for men’s learning
- gestural philology of palm-inward v-sign
- Marie de France’s Bisclavret on men’s secret, inner beast
- Lanval: Marie de France understood men’s dreams
Chapter 5: Heloise
- Heloise loved Abelard with a big-hearted feminine love
- Heloise taught Abelard boldness and courage
- Heloise wholly innocent of disastrous marriage with Abelard
- Mary of Egypt in the thought of Heloise of the Paraclete
Chapter 6: Hildegard of Bingen
- Hildegard of Bingen on men’s genitals and semen
- appreciation for men’s sexuality in Hildegard’s Causae et curae
- Hildegard of Bingen’s antiphon for fathers, O magne pater
Chapter 6: From Hildegard to Marguerite Porete
- Grazida Lizier & Reservoir Tip on mutually joyful love-making
- Porete rejects Holy Cathedral the Little & turns to annihilation
- the Mirror: actively promoted, long book on doing nothing
- Mirror of Simple Souls, rationalization, and the Virgin Mary
- Candace & Alexander the Great: from cunning to inwardness
Afterword:
As this supplementary volume makes clear, medieval women writers, though few relative to men, vastly outperformed men in showing concern for men. Men are more likely than women to view other men as competitors or enemies. Women writers historically have done most of the work of speaking out for men. Unless men experience an awakening of self-consciousness, the welfare of men will continue to be in women’s hands.