Women Writers in Early European History

The Middle Ages and Early Modern periods were periods during which writing was a mode for women’s self-fashioning and expression in western Europe. Women’s devotional practices in particular offered a dynamic space for education, the advancement of both Latin and vernacular literacies, and the production of often highly personal texts speaking of divine matters on the level of everyday life. We will study a diverse set of writings by women in the medieval and early modern periods, and women’s texts will be examined as historical evidence for women’s perspectives. P