Writing Religious Women: Female Spiritual and Textual Practices in Late Medieval England by Denis Renevey , Christiania Whitehead (review)

Abstract

YES, 33, 2003 YES, 33, 2003 333 333 examining the use of pious formulaein a varietyof devotional and doctrinalworks. It quickly becomes apparent that formulaic devices in such texts have a function beyond mere infill and in fact are exploited with deliberation:here, tags function mnemonically, supplyinglessons for the reader/audience and subject-headingsfor the preacher;there, they constitute abbreviated invocations of pious imagery as a focus for prayer;elsewhere, tags may represent an associative institutionalweight, as they do on the lips of saintsin hagiographicalnarratives. With these disparate functions in mind, Dalrymple goes on to explore the occurrencesof pious formulae in a range of romance texts, againstthe background of the Church'sdisapprobationof the genre. The devotional materialsystematically exploits the mnemonic or associative qualities of pious formulae; and romance authorsalsouse formulaeschematically,drawingmeaningsfromanalogouscontexts in the romances and from other sources, and employing the tags to guide reader/ audience responseand to tapinto the shareddevotionalconsciousness.The authors' selection of formulae leads to a precise characterizationof God or Christ intrinsic to each narrative.Thus WilliamofPalerne employs images of the Creation to signify God's benevolence, while the collapse of Arthur's court depicted in the Stanzaic MorteArthur is accompanied by images of Christ's suffering.Creation-formulaein TheKingof Tarslead into the miraculous restoration of a malformed child, and thence to the conversion of its father, the sultan; Passion-formulae in Amis and Amiloun emphasize the dichotomy between the heroes'loyaltyto each other and the loyalty they owe to God. Pious formulae give coherence the various genres of the Auchinleck manuscript, a coherence mimicked in microcosm by the numinous tags that connect the disparate generic elements of Guyof Warwick. Auchinleck's Christian-heathenromances, TheKingof Tars,Otuel, and Roland andVernagu, use the same formulaicschemes as the Livesof SaintsKatherine and Margaret,which lends the romances semantic and didactic authority. This is a valuable and tightly argued addition to the medievalist'scriticalcanon, somewhat diminished by typographical and editorial errors, notably in the crossreferencing of classificationsbetween catalogue and study. Particularlyconfusing, especially for those who may consult only the catalogue, is that the number and definition of groupingspreceding the conceptual listing in the appendix appear to derive from an earlier draft and do not match the scheme used in the body of the catalogue or referredto in the study. RUGBY AMANDA HOPKINS Writing Religious Women. Female Spiritual andTextual Practices in LateMedieval England. Ed. by DENISRENEVEY and CHRISTIANIA WHITEHEAD.Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 2000. xi + 270 pp. [30 (paperbound [I4.99). Nicholas Watson's 'vernacular theology' has been one of the most important additions to the medievalist's vocabulary over the last decade or so. Students of devotional literaturehave suddenlyfound themselvesat the centre of a reconfigured Medieval English Literature,where their hitherto neglected texts are understood alongside (and help us to understand)Langland, the Pearl-poet,even Chaucer. But at the same time there is a dangerthat our broadened focus on this new and almost all-encompassing horizon may cause us to lose sight of some of the specificityand differenceof and, especially,within the field of devotional literatureas traditionally understood. This valuable collection focuses chiefly, though not exclusively, on sexual differencewithin the field. In the firstof two editorial introductionsto the volume, examining the use of pious formulaein a varietyof devotional and doctrinalworks. It quickly becomes apparent that formulaic devices in such texts have a function beyond mere infill and in fact are exploited with deliberation:here, tags function mnemonically, supplyinglessons for the reader/audience and subject-headingsfor the preacher;there, they constitute abbreviated invocations of pious imagery as a focus for prayer;elsewhere, tags may represent an associative institutionalweight, as they do on the lips of saintsin hagiographicalnarratives. With these disparate functions in mind, Dalrymple goes on to explore the occurrencesof pious formulae in a range of romance texts, againstthe background of the Church'sdisapprobationof the genre. The devotional materialsystematically exploits the mnemonic or associative qualities of pious formulae; and romance authorsalsouse formulaeschematically,drawingmeaningsfromanalogouscontexts in the romances and from other sources, and employing the tags to guide reader/ audience responseand to tapinto the shareddevotionalconsciousness.The authors' selection of formulae leads to a precise characterizationof God or Christ intrinsic to each narrative.Thus WilliamofPalerne employs images of the Creation to signify God...