Double Agents: Women and Clerical Culture in Anglo-Saxon England (Religion and Culture in the Middle Ages) - Hardcover

Lees, Clare A.; Overing, Gillian R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0708321836 ISBN 13: 9780708321836

Publisher: University of Wales Press, 2010

Synopsis

First published in 2001, Double Agents was the first book-length study of women in Anglo-Saxon written culture that took on the insights provided by contemporary critical and feminist theory, and it quickly established itself as a standard. Now available again, it complicates the exclusion of women from the historical record of Anglo-Saxon England by tackling the deeper questions behind how the feminine is modeled, used, and made metaphoric in Anglo-Saxon texts, even when the women themselves are absent.

About this title

About the Author:

Clare A. Lees is professor of medieval literature at King’s College London. Gillian R. Overing is professor of English at Wake Forest University. They have collaborated on a number of projects, including, most recently, A Place to Believe In: Locating Medieval Landscapes.

Review:

“Whether they are interrogating the scholarly narrative of Cędmon as the ‘father of English poetry,’ investigating the historical record for feminine literacy or considering the female saint’s body, both real and metaphorical, Lees and Overing apply crucial pressure to some of the most common assumptions about Anglo-Saxon culture.”

(Karma Lochrie, Indiana University)

“Double Agents is an innovative and provocative study, adventurous in its choice of texts and stimulating in its lively and detailed engagement with them. The authors’ exploration of the complex relation of the feminine, orality and literacy will undoubtedly influence the direction of future critical enquiry.”

(Stephanie Hollis, University of Auckland)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0708321836
• ISBN 13: 9780708321836
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 256