By Scott Williams (Fall 2022) The book of Judith was written originally in Hebrew. The poem was adapted from the Book of Judith in the “late 10th-century[by an] Anglo-Saxon abbot and writer” (Greenblat 109). The Hebrews in the poem are the good guys and the ones victorious against the Assyrians. […]
gender
By Paulina Allen (Fall 2022) The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women by Joseph Swetnam is a misogynistic pamphlet published in 1615. The Arraignment of Women details jokes, ramblings, and biblical arguments against the value of women. Its publication took place during the pamphlet wars of the 17th […]
By Nick Dlugos (Fall 2022) The idea of a perfect hero, especially in medieval literature, often manifests itself in the ideas of knights like Sir Lancelot or many of the other knights of the roundtable. However, one knight of the roundtable, Sir Gawain, isn’t the same as his peers. When […]
By Juliana Hall (Fall 2022) While men in power, both fictional and real, are consistently praised for their actions and excused for their wrongdoings, women in power are criticized or portrayed as weak and unworthy of titles. In The Blazing World, however, the relationship between the two female characters and […]
By Julia Dantzler (Fall 2022) In the 12th century, Marie de France wrote the lai “Bisclavret,” which is the story of a man who changes forms and disappears for days at a time from his wife and civilized life to be a wolf in the forest. This lai is one […]
By Heiner Badilla Sanchez (Fall 2022) Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum translated as “Hail God King of the Jades (Jews)” is a mixture of several concepts put together through the lens of Emilia Lanier. This particular piece is important for numerous reasons especially within the context of the modern society we […]
By Genevieve Duska (Fall 2022) A Muzzle for Melastomus by Rachel Speght is a text that opened doors for early feminists. Speght was the first English woman to write something of this nature under her own name. She wrote two known works in her lifetime, both which explore feminism. Her […]
By Fengying Guo (Fall 2022) “The Lay of the Werewolf” is one of the twelve Breton lais written by Marie de France. Historians know very little about her and they believe that she is either a nun or an aristocratic woman because those are “the only literate women in medieval […]
By Emily Steiger (Fall 2022) Rachel Speght’s, A Muzzle for Melastomus (Black Mouth), made her the first Englishwoman to critique gender ideology back in 1617. She was a prominent writer who contributed to the pamphlet wars, a phenomenon that was occurring during this post-printing press innovation that made it possible […]
By Grace Cairns (Fall 2022) Oroonoko, a 17th Century novel written by Aphra Behn, follows the mournful love story between Oroonoko, a handsome African prince, and Imoinda, his beautiful partner. It follows the journey of them being sold into slavery and the mistreatment they face in enslavement, ending with both […]