Gender and Literacy: the participation of women in book culture in England and Francia, c.650 - c.950

该项目将探讨妇女参与书籍的生产和消费，在中世纪早期的英国和法国，文学网络促进和维持了这些活动。在以往学术研究的基础上，这本书试图突破我们对性别角色和女性代理的认知，探索有权势的女王和女修道院院长在追求她们的策略和目标的过程中如何影响文学作品的产出，以及她们在多大程度上取得了成功。通过对提供妇女参与图书文化证据的文本的分析，包括信件、遗嘱和圣徒传记，以及对妇女创作和使用的现存手稿的研究，该项目将探索妇女作为赞助人、抄写员、作者、所有者和图书保管人所扮演的各种角色。它旨在分析650年至950年间女性参与图书文化的变化方式和程度，识别和探索任何明显的地理差异。它还将调查女性的参与可以揭示图书生产网络本身的本质，同时探索女性在这些网络中扮演的角色，更广泛地揭示了中世纪早期社会的性别角色和女性代理。本研究将性别置于其分析的核心，旨在为女权主义学术做出贡献，不仅主张女性生活经历对早期中世纪社会研究的重要性，而且主张性别建构的重要性。这项研究将是第一个对英国和法国从七世纪中叶到十世纪中叶的女性和图书文化进行持续分析的研究。因此，它将处于一个独特的位置，可以探索时间和地理的变化和差异，为教育、扫盲和图书生产网络的研究做出原创性贡献，并更广泛地增进对早期中世纪文化的理解。

This project will explore women's participation in the production and consumption of books, facilitated and sustained by literate networks in early medieval England and Francia. Building upon previous scholarship, it seeks to push the boundaries of what we think we know about gender roles and women's agency by exploring how powerful queens and abbesses influenced literary output in pursuit of their strategies and aims, and the extent to which they were successful. Through analysis of texts which provide evidence of women's involvement in book culture, including letters, wills and hagiographies, and the study of extant manuscripts created and used by women, this project will explore the varied roles women played as patrons, scribes, authors, owners and custodians of books. It aims to analyse how and the extent to which women's participation in book culture changed between 650 and 950, identifying and exploring any discernible geographical differences. It will also investigate what women's involvement can reveal about the nature of the networks of book production themselves, alongside exploring what the roles women played within these networks suggest about gender roles and women's agency in early medieval society more widely. Placing gender at the heart of its analysis, this research seeks to contribute to feminist scholarship, asserting not only the importance of women's lived experiences to the study of early medieval societies, but also the significance of constructions of gender. This study will be the first to conduct a sustained analysis of women and book culture in both England and Francia from the mid-seventh to the mid-tenth century. Thus, it will be in a unique position to explore both temporal and geographic change and differences, making an original contribution to the study of education, literacy and the networks of book production, and enhancing understandings of early medieval culture more widely.