The contributions gathered in this volume take a fresh look at the medieval history of women, revealing the many faces of female reality during an extremely dynamic period—while individuality was on the rise, new linguistic codes (vernacular languages) and innovative literary genres were emerging, and the political situation was undergoing deep changes.
The book is structured in three interrelated sections: The first is dedicated to "Historical femininity" and documents the cultural and literary activities carried out by women from the nobility. The second is about "Authorial femininity" and explores the innovative work of both prominent and lesser-known female writers. The last section deals with "Textual femininity" and analyses the female protagonists of lyric poetry and narrative literature.
As a whole, the book shows how complex and diverse medieval discourses on and from women were.