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This volume focuses on women´s literary history in Britain between 700 and 1500. It brings to the fore a wide range of women´s literary activity undertaken in Latin, Welsh and Anglo-Norman alongside that of the English vernacular, demanding a rethinking of the traditions of literary history, and ultimately the concept of ´writing´ itself.

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Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Chronology Introduction: Writing a History of Women´s Writing from 700 to 1500; L.Herbert McAvoy & D.Watt PART I: PRE-TEXTS AND CONTEXTS Women and the Origins of English Literature; C.A.Lees& G.R.Overing Literary Production Before and After the Conquest; C.A.M.Clarke The French of the English and Early British Women´s Literary Culture; C.Batt Women Writers in Wales; J.Cartwright Medieval Antifeminism; A.Bernau PART II: BODIES, BEHAVIOURS AND TEXTS Romance; C.Saunders Saints´ Lives; S.Horner Devotional Literature; M.M.Sauer Marian Literature; S.Niebryzdowski Late Medieval Conduct Literature; M.J.Seaman PART III: LITERACIES AND LITERARY CULTURES Women and their Manuscripts; C.M.Meale Women and Reading; L.Farina Women and Networks of Literary Production; E.Robertson Anonymous Writers; L.H.McAvoy Women Translators; A.Barratt Women´s Letters, 1350-1500; J.Daybell PART IV: FEMALE AUTHORITY Christine de Pizan and Joan of Arc; N.B.Warren Mary of Oignies; J.N. Brown Bridget of Sweden; L.Saetveit Miles Catherine of Siena; A.C. Grisé Julian of Norwich; A.Appleford Margery Kempe; D.Watt ´A Revelation of Purgatory´; M.C.Erler Bibliography Index

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´This collection is a noteworthy addition to the bibliography on women´s contributions to medieval literature...McAvoy and Watt are to be commended for compiling an outstanding collaborative history of women´s writings, as well as a significant history of medieval literature. It will be profitably read by anyone interested in medieval literature or women´s writing. With its assessments of prior and current scholarship and its generous notes and bibliography, it offers a thorough overview of the field for graduate students, and its informative, well-written, and original essays make it recommended reading for anyone studying women´s writing.´ - Monica Brzezinski Potkay, The Review of English Studies

´McAvoy and Watt aim with this volume to establish a more engaging and relevant dialogue between past and present, and they succeed. The History of British Women´s Writing, 700-1500 is, in fact, an exciting and valuable contribution to the study of medieval literature and feminist studies.´ - Make Mag

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