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

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. "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 Cover 1 Title 8 Copyright 9 Contents 11 List of Illustrations 12 Acknowledgments 13 List of Abbreviations 15 Introduction 16 1. The Control and Criminalization of Women’s Speech 21 2. The “Imagined Woman” 51 3. Women, Conversation, Crime, and the Courts 70 4. The Assembly of Ladies: Rebelling in Eden 92 5. Code-Switching: Male Crossing into Female Speech Domain 110 6. Margery Kempe: “I grab the microphone and move my body”—Volatile Speech, Volatile Bodies 133 Conclusion 154 Notes 158 Bibliography 230 Index 256 Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction....Pages 1-5 The Control and Criminalization of Women’s Speech....Pages 7-36 The “Imagined Woman”....Pages 37-55 Women, Conversation, Crime, and the Courts....Pages 57-78 The Assembly of Ladies: Rebelling in Eden....Pages 79-96 Code-Switching: Male Crossing into Female Speech Domain....Pages 97-119 Margery Kempe: “I Grab the Microphone and Move My Body”— Volatile Speech, Volatile Bodies....Pages 121-141 Conclusion....Pages 143-146 Back Matter....Pages 147-257