Celebrating the mundance : the feminine influence in early middle English prose
Date
1995
Authors
Gilliland, Corinna Mary Constance
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Abstract
The AB group, a body of literature, written in the West Midlands for thirteenth-century anchoresses and nuns, includes Hali Meiphad ("Holy Virginity" -- a treatise advocating celibacy) and Ancrene Wisse (or Ancrene Riwle -- a guide for anchorites). These works are linked thematically, lexically, and historically. The quotidian imagery of the group is most pronounced in the graphic portrayal of pregnancy, childbirth, and domestic strife in Hali Meiphad, whose realistic depictions differ dramatically from the sources upon which it is based. An argument that women participated in the development of Hali Meiphad is based on these differences, as well as on the author's profound understanding of the female perspective. Linguistic and stylistic analyses show that Hali Meiphad could have been written by the author of Ancrene Wisse, who knew the young women commissioning his Rule well enough to have made them collaborators in the development of his virginity treatise.