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To the Glory of Her Sex: Women's Roles in the Composition of Medieval Texts by Joan M. Ferrante

1998; Scriptoriun Press; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/art.1998.0012

1934-1539

John Carmi Parsons,

Medieval Literature and History

REVIEWS153 In short, Staley's introductory analysis ofthe Book appears inherently contradictory. It would ofcourse be unfair to expect her to deal with the vexed philosophical question ofthe referential!ty oftexts, not to mention on-going theoretical disagreements among different sorts of historicist, feminist and post-modernist literary critics, in a tenpage introduction designed for students. But might she have been more forthcoming about the 'built-in contradictions' of her own critical stance rather than displace them, as she does, onto the text itself(10)? The best patt ofher introduction is that devoted to the earliest readers' responses, which took the form ofrubrics and marginal commentaries. These, as Staley rightly observes, 'suggest ways in which medieval texts were seen as communal,' as 'living documents' with 'perceived relevance' to those who read them (7). It is a pity she did not consider using these responses as a basis for confronting and perhaps partially resolving this apparent contradition between the fictionality of Kempe's Book and the truth of its representation of late medieval English culture. The text itself is carefully edited in the familiar TEAMS format, offering a minimally modernized text, with glosses provided on each page, plus a briefglossary at the end. In accordance with Staley's literary approach, textual notes far outnumber explanatory notes, and from an historical point of view the explanatory notes are sometimes inadequate. For example, Staley's gloss of the phrase, dette ofmatrimony (1. 256), is misleading; ifit was 'a conventional way ofspeaking ofmarital relations,' that is because it was first and foremost a biblically-based precept of canon law. Again, although she glosses steryngys ('stirrings,' 1. 160) as one ofthe key concepts of late medieval mystical and devotional texts, in particular those of Richard Rolle (mentioned by Margery, 1. 899), she offers no explanation at all ofthe term used to desctibe Matgery's spiritual goal itself, hirperfeccyon (1. 992), though this is the key concept in Walter Hilton's Ladder ofPerfection (also mentioned by Margery, 1. 899) and because ofits modern meaning even more likely to be misunderstood. Students will need more help than is offered in this edition to achieve an historical understanding of The Book ofMargery Kempe. Nevertheless, we must be grateful to Staley for making an important text readily available to them. BEVERLY KENNEDY Marianopolis College joan M. ferrante, To the Glory ofHerSex: Women'sRoles in the Composition ofMedieval Texts. Series:'Women of Letters,' Sandra M Gilbert and Susan Gubar, gen. eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977. Pp. xii, 295. isbn: 0-253-33254-0 (cloth) $39.95: isbn: 0-253-21108-5 (paper) $19.95. In this overview ofwomen's roles in creating literary texts from early Christian times to Christine de Pizan, Joan Ferrante seeks to integrate vernacular and Latin texts for this vast timespan but slights German, Italian and Spanish; tackling a shorter span, or only Latin or vernacular texts, might have allowed for more research time or the space to develop ideas mote broadly. As it is, the reader soon recognizes this well laid out and neatly written book as primarily a select descriptive catalogue of medieval texts associated with women. 154arthuriana Coftespondence—including men's letters to women—dominates Ferrante's research (p. 3). As most extant medieval women's letters originated with women in positions ofpolitical power or educated religious, these letterswill suggest that medieval women participated successfully in intellectual and political life.The chapter summary at p. 106 (one paragraph, like most of the others) thus states that medieval society accepted women in positions ofpower and that theit rule could be seen as beneficial. The tautology is inescapable: the medieval women who could write or afford to patronize writers were, eo ipso, almost always wealthy, powerful or educated—and that such women acted as regents to powerful abbesses is a commonplace in medieval women's history. But as Ferrante ignores the many who left no letters, the eminent few give her too positive a view ofwomen in medieval society. As pattiarchy 'could not exclude [women] from all power or influence,' Ferrante seeks 'positive female pracitce rather than...negative theory' (p. 5-6). Contrasted negative male ideas on women and positive, ifoften unwritten, practice ate...