Legend of Holy Women, A - A Translation of Osbern Bokenham's Legends of Holy Women (Hardcover)

Sheila Delany's spirited translation of Osbern Bokenham's Legendys of Hooly Wummen (1443-1447) makes available in modern English the first all-female hagiography. Closely translated from elaborate, Latinate Middle English verse into fluent prose, A Legend of Holy Women contains the Augustinian friar's version of the stories of 13 women saints from gospel, apocrypha, martyrology, and high-medieval history. As Delany writes in her comprehensive introduction, "Bokenham gives us not only an all-female hagiography-an authorial decision significant in its own right-but a gallery of powerful, articulate women who are indubitably worthy to do God's work. Some of them are well-educated, some give sound political advice to a monarch, some preach, converting hundreds and thousands to Christianity, some walk on water or perform resurrection. Nor are they pacifists; on the contrary, they call for divinely inflicted vengeance and approve violence in their cause." Delany argues that Geoffrey Chaucer's Legend of Good Women provided a principle of selection and of arrangement for Bokenham's array of saints. She suggests further that the friar's choice of all-female hagiography, and his poetic representation of holy women, are closely linked to patronage and politics in fifteenth-century England. The translation is accompanied by full notes which, along with the introduction, make the book accessible to a wide audience. It will appeal to all readers interested in the representation of women in late-medieval culture as well as to scholars and students in medieval, renaissance, religious, and women's studies.

General

Imprint:	University of Notre Dame Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Notre Dame Texts in Medieval Culture
Release date:	December 1992
Authors:	Sheila Delany
Dimensions:	229 x 152mm (L x W)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	256
ISBN-13:	978-0-268-01294-6
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Literary studies > Classical, early & medieval Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Poetry & poets > General Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Essays, journals, letters & other prose works > General Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > Christian theology > General Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Christian theology > General Books > Christianity > Christian theology
LSN:	0-268-01294-6
Barcode:	9780268012946

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