Anthology of Ancient Medival Woman's Song

This collection focuses on a woman's point of view in love poetry, and juxtaposes poems by women and poems about women to raise questions about how femininity is constructed. Although most medieval 'woman's songs' are either anonymous or male-authored lyrics in a popular style, the term can usefully be expanded to cover poetry composed by women, and poetry that is aristocratic or learned rather than popular. Poetry from ancient Greece and Rome that resonates with the medieval poems is also included here. Readers will find a range of voices, often echoing similar themes, as women rejoice or lament, praise or condemn, plead or curse, speak in jest or in earnest, to men and to each other, about love.

About the Author

ANNE L. KLINCK is Professor of English at the University of New Brunswick, Canada.

Review

'The cultural breadth of the anthology's selections create a rich linguistic, historical, and cultural overview of one of the most long-lived forms of poetry known today. The poetry itself is fresh and appealing in its own right and Professor Kinck's translations capture the sense of the original in spare and vivid modern English translations that avoid both archaisms and jargon. Professor Klinck wears her immense erudition lightly in the useful, clear introduction and select bibliography, both of which orient the novice reader well without short-changing those already knowledgeable in the field. This excellent anthology will appeal to a large audience of students and teachers in the humanities and interpretive social sciences at a wide range of colleges and universities (perhaps even some high schools).' - Ann Marie Rasmussen, Associate Professor of German, Duke University.