Double Agents: Women and Clerical Culture in Anglo-Saxon England (The Middle Ages Series)

First published in 2001, Double Agents was the first book-length study of women in Anglo-Saxon written culture that took on the insights provided by contemporary critical and feminist theory, and it quickly established itself as a standard. Now available again, it complicates the exclusion of women from the historical record of Anglo-Saxon England by tackling the deeper questions behind how the feminine is modeled, used, and made metaphoric in Anglo-Saxon texts, even when the women themselves are absent. Obviously A Part Of The Social Fabric Of Anglo-saxon England, Women Are Nevertheless Accorded An Obscure And Slender Role In The Textual Archive Of Masculine Clerical Culture. What Can This Record Of Patriarchy, Clare Lees And Gillian Overing Ask, Contribute To The History Of Women? Double Agents Explores The Meaning And Implications Of Women's Absence And Presence In The Partial History Of Anglo-saxon Culture. Rather Than Recovering The Details Of Exceptional Women's Lives, Double Agents Concerns Itself With The Formation Of The Cultural Record Itself, And With Women's Relation To Its Processes Of Production And Reception. By Revisiting Many Familiar Issues Within The Scholarly Tradition - Orality And Literacy, Documentation And Authenticity Sources And Analogues ... And By Looking At Some Of The Core Authors Of The Period, Bede Aldhelm, And Aelfric, Who Continue The Intellectual Traditions Of The Early Church Fathers Lees And Overing Address Women's Entry Into The Patostic Symbolic, The Order Which Authorizes The Record Itself.--jacket. Difference Historicized -- Where Are Those Women? -- Believing Women: Self, Psyche, Body -- Representation And Referentiality -- A Feminist Patristics? -- 1. Patristic Maternity: Bede, Hild, And Cultural Procreation. Engendering Originary Narratives. The Genedered Paradigm Of Cultural Production -- 2. Orality, Femininity, And The Disappearing Trace In Early Anglo-saxon England. Paradigms Of Absence In Anglo-saxon Culture. What's In A Name? Riddling And Renaming. Chartered Territory -- 3. Literacy And Gender In Later Anglo-saxon England. Women In Dispute. What's In A Name, Indeed. Present Voices, Absent Names. What Matter What Name? Riddles Of Literacy, Riddles Of Signification. The Lady Reads. Clare A. Lees And Gillian R. Overing. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [219]-233) And Index. "Obviously a part of the social fabric of Anglo-Saxon England, women are nevertheless accorded an obscure and slender role in the textual archive of masculine clerical culture. What can this record of patriarchy, Clare Lees and Gillian Overing ask, contribute to the history of women? Double Agents explores the meaning and implications of women's absence and presence in the partial history of Anglo-Saxon culture.". "Rather than recovering the details of exceptional women's lives, Double Agents concerns itself with the formation of the cultural record itself, and with women's relation to its processes of production and reception. By revisiting many familiar issues within the scholarly tradition - orality and literacy, documentation and authenticity sources and analogues ... and by looking at some of the core authors of the period, Bede Aldhelm, and Aelfric, who continue the intellectual traditions of the early Church fathers Lees and Overing address women's entry into the patostic symbolic, the order which authorizes the record itself."--BOOK JACKET. Obviously a part of the social fabric of Anglo-Saxon England, women are nevertheless accorded an obscure and slender role in the textual archive of masculine clerical culture. What can this record of patriarchy, Clare Lees and Gillian Overing ask, contribute to the history of women? Double Agents explores the meaning and implications of women's absence and presence in the partial history of Anglo-Saxon culture.Rather than recovering the details of exceptional women's lives, Double Agents concerns itself with the formation of the cultural record itself, and with women's relation to its processes of production and reception. By revisiting many familiar issues within the scholarly tradition -- orality and literacy, documentation and authenticity, sources and analogues -- and by looking at some of the core authors of the period -- Bede, Aldhelm, and AElfric, who continue the intellectual traditions of the early Church fathers -- Lees and Overing address woman's entry into the patristic symbolic, the order which authorizes the record itself. Obviously a part of the social fabric of Anglo-Saxon England, women are nevertheless accorded an obscure and slender role in the textual archive of masculine clerical culture. What can this record of patriarchy contribute to the history of women, Clare Lees and Gillian Overing ask. Double Agents explores the meaning and implications of women's absence and presence in the partial history of Anglo-Saxon culture. Rather than recovering the details of exceptional women's lives, Double Agents concerns itself with the formation of the cultural record itself, and with women's relation to its processes of production and reception. By revisiting many familiar issues within the scholarly traditionorality and literacy, documentation and authenticity, sources and analoguesand by looking at some of the core authors of the periodBede, Aldhelm, and Aelfric, who continue the intellectual traditions of the early Church fathersLees and Overing address woman's entry into the patristic symbolic, the order which authorizes the record itself.