TY - BOOK AU - Bartlett,Anne Clark TI - Male Authors, Female Readers: Representation and Subjectivity in Middle English Devotional Literature SN - 9781501722080 AV - PR275.R4 B37 1995 U1 - 823/.309382 20 PY - 2018///] CY - Ithaca, NY PB - Cornell University Press KW - Authorship KW - Sex differences KW - Devotional literature, English (Middle) KW - Male authors KW - History and criticism KW - English prose literature KW - Middle English, 1100-1500 KW - Mimesis in literature KW - Subjectivity in literature KW - Women and literature KW - England KW - History KW - Women KW - Books and reading KW - Prayers and devotions KW - Literary Studies KW - Medieval & Renaissance Studies KW - LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval KW - bisacsh N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface --; 1. Reading Medieval Women Reading Devotional Literature --; II. Gendering and Regendering: The Case of De institutione inclusarum --; III. ”Letters of Love”: Feminine Courtesy and Religious Instruction --; IV. ”Ghostly Sister in Jesus Christ”: Spiritual Friendship and Sexual Politics --; V. ”I Would Have Been One of Them”: Translation, Contemplation, and Gender --; Afterword: Beyond Misogyny(?) --; Appendix: A Descriptive List of Extant Books Owned by Medieval English Nuns and Convents --; Bibliography --; Index; restricted access N2 - "Holy men despise women.and view them as foul and sticking dirt in the road," asserst the male author of the fifteenth-century Book to a Mother. Middle English devotional writings reflect shades of mysogony ranging from the blatant to the subtle, yet these texts were among the most popular literature know to the earliest generation of English women readers. In the first book to examine this paradox, Anne Clark Bartlett considers why medieval women enjoyed such male-authored works as Speculum Devotorum, The Tree, The Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost, and Contemplations on the Dread and Love of God. Demonstrating that these texts actually provided alternative—and more appealing—notions of gender than those authorized by the Church, Bartlett redefines women's participation in medieval culture in terms of far greater agency and empowerment than have generally been acknowledged UR - https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501722080 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781501722080 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9781501722080/original ER -