Title:
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Assertive women in medieval Spanish literature
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The purpose of this thesis is to study the role of women in medieval
Spanish literature. My main concern is to provide a comprehensive
portrayal of assertive women; that is to say, to describe the actions and to
interpret the discourse of females who empower themselves and become
the dominant participants in the development of the works' plots.
This thesis has three chapters, in which I discuss the role of the
female characters from the following genres: the Epic, the Ballads, and the
Sentimental Romances. Each chapter is subdivided into three parts:
a. The characterization of women in each work is addressed separately;
b. The female characters are categorized into specific groups, to provide a
descriptive list of prototypes for the different genres;
c. The development of a specific topic in the selected genres (i.e. 'Heroines
and Villainesses in the Epic', 'Pre-marital Sex in the Ballads', and 'The
Defence of Virtuous Women in the Sentimental Romances') is traced and
analysed.
The generic diversity and the vast chronological span of the works
studied allowed for a variety of critical approaches. I do not confine myself
to a feminist analysis of the works. I rely heavily on textual interpretation
of the characterization of these women, and use a wide range of studies by
other scholars to support my hypotheses. Besides the literary criticism, I
rely also on a number of historical works which describe the role of
women in the Middle Ages.
This thesis should confirm the importance of studying the role of
women during the Middle Ages, in literature as well as in life. We must
allow medieval women to speak if we wish for a wider and better-balanced
understanding of the literature of the Middle Ages.
I attach as supplementary material offprints of 'Fiometa's Suicide in
Grimalte y Gradissa', Journal of Hispanic Research, 1 (1992-93), 345-48, and 'Back to the Text: Another Look at Juan Rodriguez del Padron's Siervo libre
de amor', Romanische Forschungen, 106 (1994), 48-60.
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