Home > Feminism > Women and Women's Writings from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages - Jennifer Wynne Hellwarth (Essay Date January 2002)
Women and Women's Writings from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages - Jennifer Wynne Hellwarth (Essay Date January 2002)
JENNIFER WYNNE HELLWARTH (ESSAY DATE JANUARY 2002)
SOURCE: Hellwarth, Jennifer Wynne. "'I Wyl Wright of Women Prevy Sekenes': Imagining Female Literacy and Textual Communities in Medieval and Early Modern Midwifery Manuals." Critical Survey 14, no. 1 (January 2002): 44-64.
In the following excerpt, Hellwarth explores the subject of female literacy in the Middle Ages as a threat to patriarchal order, using late medieval midwifery manuals as her textual focus.
Defining the term 'literacy' in medieval and early modern England is not a simple task; it defies the more modern (and relatively uncomplicated) definition of having the ability to read and write. In medieval terminology, a litteratus was someone who was learned in Latin, while an illitteratus was someone who was not. Eventually, litteratus and illitteratus came to be associated with the clergy and laity...
[The entire page is 2355 words long]
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- Introduction
- Representative Works
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Primary Sources
- Pan Chao (Poem Date C. 1St Century)
- Yu Xuanji (Lyric Date C. 9Th Century)
- Three Beautiful Sisters, Orphaned Young
- Izumi Shikibu (Diary Date C. Early 11Th Century)
- Marie De France (Poem Date C. 12Th Century)
- Heloise (Letter Date C. 1163/64)
- Catherine Of Siena (Essay Date 1370)
- Birgitta Of Sweden (Essay Date C. 1377)
- Women In The Ancient World
- Women In The Medieval World
- Women In Classical Art And Literature
- Women In Medieval Art And Literature
- Classical And Medieval Women Writers
- Further Reading
- Copyright
