Reinmar der Alte, the twelfth-century poet also known as Reinmar von Hagenau, wrote a considerable number of ‘Frauenlieder’ and ‘Frauenstrophen’, i.e. poems and stanzas in which the speaker is a woman. However, there has never been a satisfactory scholarly treatment of these poems. Throughout the history of scholarship dealing with his works, the evaluation has been based mainly on a characterization of his personality. This volume tries to fill this gap by presenting and analysing the Woman’s Song of Reinmar.

The number of surviving medieval secular poems attributed to named female authors is small, some of the best known being those of the trobairitz the female troubadours of southern France. However, there is a large body of poetry that constructs a particular textual femininity through the use of the female voice. Some of these poems are by men and a few by women (including the trobairitz); many are anonymous, and often the gender of the poet is unresolvable. A "woman's song" in this sense can be defined as a female-voice poem on the subject of love, typically characterized by simple language, sexual candor, and apparent artlessness. The chapters in Medieval Woman's Song bring together scholars in a range of disciplines to examine how both men and women contributed to this art form. Without eschewing consideration of authorship, the collection deliberately overturns the long-standing scholarly practice of treating as separate and distinct entities female-voice lyrics composed by men and those composed by women. What is at stake here is less the voice of women themselves than its cultural and generic construction.

pThis award-winning multi-volume series is dedicated to making literature and its creators better understood and more accessible to students and interested readers, while satisfying the standards of librarians, teachers and scholars. IDictionary of Literary Biography /I provides reliable information in an easily comprehensible format, while placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history. p IDictionary of Literary Biography /I systematically presents career biographies and criticism of writers from all eras and all genres through volumes dedicated to specific types of literature and time periods. PFor a listing of IDictionary of Literary Biography /I volumes sorted by genre a href ="/pdf/facts/DBLvolbygenre.pdf"click here. /a

First published in 2001, Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia provides a comprehensive guide to the German and Dutch-speaking world in the Middle Ages, from approximately C.E. 500 to 1500. It offers detailed accounts of a wide variety of aspects of medieval Germany, including language, literature, architecture, politics, warfare, medicine, philosophy and religion. In addition, this reference work includes bibliographies and citations to aid further study. This A-Z encyclopedia, featuring over 500 entries written by expert contributors, will be of key interest to students and scholars, as well as general readers.

Offers an approach to medieval womanhood by depicting the social position of the lady and the working woman; women's education; the phenomenology of women in daily life; alternate lifestyles; the reality of married daily life; clandestine marriages; and images of the female in literature and art.