Modern scholarship generally treats the "debate about women" (querelle des femmes) as a late medieval phenomenon, perhaps touched upon by canonic authors like Chaucer but truly begun by Christine de Pizan (1364-1429), and therefore primarily of English and French origin. That emphasis has obscured the ways in which both writers were participating in a much wider, much older cultural phenomenon with varied and intractable roots. Articles in this collection explore how gender is put into debate in Anglo-Saxon, German, Spanish and Italian cultures, and they re-examine French and Middle English debate literature. The collection is carefully planned to be accessible to students seeking an idea of the debate's motifs and contours while maintaining the high level of issue involvement necessary to commanding a more seasoned audience. Contributors include Pamela Benson, Alcuin Blamires, Margaret Franklin, Roberta Krueger, Clare Lees and Gillian Overing, Ann Matter, Karen Pratt, Helen Solterer, Julian Weiss, and Barbara Weissberger.

'...essential reading for any medievalist who works on issues related to gender.' - Lisa Perfetti, South Atlantic Review

'...accessible and informative...' - C.S. Cox, Choice

Autorentext
THELMA FENSTER is Professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Fordham University.

CLAIRE LEES is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Program in Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon.

Inhalt
Medieval Christian Debates about Female Nature; A.Matter Debating Women in Anglo-Saxon England; C.Lees & G.R.Overing Legal Discourses and the Encoding of the Debate about Women; R.Karras Declarations of Freedom: Franchise and the Querelle des Femmes; H. Solterer Framing the Debate about Women, Men, and Gender in the Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Courtly Fictions; R.Krueger Refiguring the 'Scandalous Excess' of Medieval Woman; A.Blamires The Debate in Play: Gender as Ludic Drama; T.Fenster Editorial Compilation and the Debate about Women in Medieval German Literature; A.M.Rasmussen Debating Gender in Early Modern Spain; J.Weiss The Effects of Female Sovereignty on the Debate about Women in Fifteenth-Century Spain; B.Weissberger Looking Backwards: A Renaissance Scholar's View of the Debate about Women in the Italian Middle Ages; P.J.Benson