The Inner Life of Women in Medieval Romance Literature - (New Middle Ages) by J Rider & J Friedman (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The essays collected here explore the emotionologies of several medieval, romance emotional communities through both fictional and non-fictional narratives composed in and for them. The contributors analyze texts from different linguistic traditions and different periods, but they all focus on women characters (both historical and fictional) and the emotional standards and styles that a community proposed for women through its narratives"--

Book Synopsis

Exploration of the emotionologies of several medieval, romance emotional communities through both fictional and non-fictional narratives. The contributors analyze texts from different linguistic traditions and different periods, but they all focus on women characters.

Review Quotes

"The final chapters of The Inner Life of Women in Medieval Literature thus remind us of the formidable obstacles that prevented medieval women from giving full voice to their 'inner life' and of the necessity of volumes such as the present one. By looking beyond the surface of female representations, by re- examining well-known emotional portraits, or by highlighting lesser-known writers, this collection portrays the richness, variety, and complexity of women's emotions in medieval literature.

The volume's careful attention to nuances of emotional state, to subtle shifts in feelings or perspectives, and to repressed feminine identities maps out a dynamic emotionology worthy of a closer look . . . productive and illuminating." - The Medieval Review

About the Author

JEFF RIDER Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Medieval Studies at Wesleyan University, USA.

JAMIE FRIEDMAN Assistant Professor of English at Westmont College, USA.