Empowering Collaborations: Writing Partnerships between Religious Women and Scribes in the Middle Ages (Studies in Medieval History and Culture)

This study examines partnerships between medieval women and scribes. Kimberly Benedict argues that medieval female visionaries often play prominent roles in collaboration while their male amanuenses serves as supports and foils. Benedict (affiliation not given) argues that the partnerships between religious women and scribes created feminist messages about the ability of women to wield power. She begins with an exploration of precedents for medieval women's partnerships with scribes and then proceeds to examine the generic conventions of these narratives, the notion of mediation, and sexuality and gender in the narratives. Benedict concludes with a survey of modern treatments of medieval partnerships. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR List of Illustrations vii Series Editor’s Foreword viii Acknowledgments ix Introduction x Chapter One: Precedents 1 Chapter Two: Genre 17 Chapter Three: Mediation 33 Chapter Four: Sexuality 49 Chapter Five: Revisionary Histories 61 Notes 82 Works Cited 85 Index 89