Language as the Site of Revolt in Medieval and Early Modern England: Speaking as a Woman (The New Middle Ages)

__Language as the Site of Revolt in Medieval and Early Modern England: Speaking as a Woman__ makes the provocative argument that despite extensive evidence indicating a wholesale suppression of early women’s speech, women were actively engaged in cultural practices and speech strategies. M.C. Bodden ably demonstrates that not only did women have their own epistemologies, but they were also simultaneously complicit with patriarchal ideology and subversive in undermining that ideology. Cover 1 Frontmatter 2 Title 8 Copyright 9 Contents 12 List of Illustrations 14 Acknowledgments 16 List of Abbreviations 18 Introduction 20 1. The Control and Criminalization of Women’s Speech 26 2. The “Imagined Woman” 56 3. Women, Conversation, Crime, and the Courts 76 4. The Assembly of Ladies: Rebelling in Eden 98 5. Code-Switching: Male Crossing into Female Speech Domain 116 6. Margery Kempe: “I grab the microphone and move my body”—Volatile Speech, Volatile Bodies 140 Conclusion 162 Notes 166 Bibliography 238 Index 264 "This book has two objectives: to demonstrate that, despite extensive evidence indicating a wholesale suppression of early women's speech, women were actively engaged in cultural practices and speech strategies that were both complicitous with patriarchal ideology, and yet subversive in undermining that ideology. Further, this book dissociates early women's self-expression from, solely, licentiousness by greatly expanding the scope, the consequences, and the cultural forces of early women's speech"-- Provided by publisher

Language as the Site of Revolt in Medieval and Early Modern England: Speaking as a Woman makes the provocative argument that despite extensive evidence indicating a wholesale suppression of early women’s speech, women were actively engaged in cultural practices and speech strategies. M.C. Bodden ably demonstrates that not only did women have their own epistemologies, but they were also simultaneously complicit with patriarchal ideology and subversive in undermining that ideology. 

The control and criminalization of women's speech The "imagined woman" Women, conversation, crime, and the courts The assembly of ladies : rebelling in Eden Code-switching : male crossing into female speech domain Margery Kempe : "I grab the microphone and move my body" : volatile speech, volatile bodies Conclusion. Despite attempts to suppress early women's speech, this study demonstrates that women were still actively engaged in cultural practices and speech strategies that were both complicit with the patriarchal ideology whilst also undermining it.