Updated 04-07-07

Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."

About this site

The site offers an introduction to over 125 women who wrote a substantial amount before 1700 and whose work (or at least a good part of it) has been translated into modern English. All but three entries are on women who wrote in languages other than English; those three are on women who wrote in the English of the 1300s and 1400s. Almost all of the entries are on individuals; a few are on more than one woman.

The site's goal is to get you to want to read all that is available in translation (or in the original if you can) of these women's writing. Why all? You need to read the whole work in order to hear the writer's full voice. Anthologies are admirable, but in reading them you eavesdrop on a small part of a conversation; you need to go to the whole to hear the writer's full conversation with her world.

Whom will you find here?
Why would you want to read these women's writing?
What is in each entry?
How can you find these works?

========================================================================

Whom will you find here?

(Note: You can link to an individual writer's page from the highlighted name, but to return to this page, you will need to use your browser's "Back" button.)

You will find three women telling of their experiences in prison (Perpetua,  Leonor Lopez de Cordoba,  Leonora Ulfeldt), and one woman trying to come to grips with another kind of prison---total deafness (Teresa de Cartagena).

Five describe their own experience of war (Li Qingzhao,  Daibu,  Gulbadan, Olympia Morata,  Anne Marie Louise de Montpensier), while three others write in praise of war and warriors (Auvaiyar,  Khansa,  Laila).

One tells of a theft she carried out (Helene Kottanner), and another writes in praise of a smuggler (Huneberc).

You will find a queen who changed the religion of the lands she ruled (Jeanne d'Albret), and a woman who went to Canada to try to change the religion of those she found there (Marie de l'Incarnation).

You will find women who founded new religious orders (Clare of Assisi,  Teresa of Avila,  Jeanne de Chantal)

.....and you will find courtesans (Xue Tao,  Yu Xuanji,  Tullia d'Aragona,  Veronica Franco).

You will find women who became mentors to male disciples (Rabi'a,  Yeshe Tsogyal,  Angela of Foligno,  Catherine of Siena,  Catherine of Genoa)

.....and those who had to deal with unsympathetic male religious leaders (Akka Mahadevi,  Mechthild of Magdeburg,  Marguerite Porete,  Margery Kempe,  Argula von Grumbach,  Marie Dentiere,  Jacqueline Pascal,  Jeanne Guyon).

You will find women trying to determine the role of women in a male-dominated world (Ban Zhao,  Christine de Pizan,  Isotta Nogarola,  Cassandra Fedele,  Laura Cereta,    Juana de la Cruz)

.....and women who set out to change that role (Moderata Fonte,  Marie de Gournay,  Lucrezia Marinella,  Maria de Zayas,  Arcangela Tarabotti,  Anna van Schurman).

Of genres, you will find verse drama (Hrotsvit,  Antonia Pulci,  Isabella Andreini),

.....epic poetry (Gabrielle de Coignard),

.....prose fiction (Murasaki Shikibu,  Sugawara no Takasue no musume,  Marguerite de Navarre,  Helisenne de Crenne, Madeleine de Scudery,  Marie Madeleine de La Fayette, Marie Catherine Desjardins-Villedieu,   Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy,  perhaps Izumi Shikibu),

.....and literary criticism (Shunzei kyo no musume).

You will find history (Akazome Emon,  Bartolomea Riccoboni,  Caritas Pirckheimer,   Jeanne de Jussie),

.....biography (Baudonivia,  Anna Comnena,  Charlotte de Mornay,   Francoise de Motteville),

.....and memoirs (Michitsuna no haha,  Sei Shonagon,  Fujiwara no Nagako, Ben no Naishi,   Abutsu,  Nijo,  Marguerite de Valois,  Gluckel von Hameln).

You will find letters (Egeria,  Radegund,  Heloise, the Paston women,  Alessandra Strozzi,  Perchta of Rozmberk,   Maria Celeste Galilei,  Elisabeth of the Palatine,  Marie de Sevigne,  Liselotte),

.....translations that are really new works (Marie de France,  Clemence of Barking),

.....and works whose purpose is to teach (Dhuoda,  Frau Ava,   Herrad of Hohenbourg,  Beatrijs of Nazareth,  Marguerite d'Oingt,  Lucrezia Tornabuoni,  Maria de San Jose,   Madame de Maintenon).

You will find an old genre, the "cento," which tried to unite two worlds (Proba, Eudocia), and a new genre, the "maxime" (Madeleine de Sable).

And of course you will find poetry---of erotic love for a human (Sappho,  Kasa no Iratsume,  Ono no Komachi,  Vittoria Colonna,  Louise Labe)

.....and of personal love for a god (Enheduanna,  Antal,  Hadewijch,  Mechthild of Magdeburg,  Janabai,  Lalla,  Mirabai).

You will find poetry on other themes as well: on the family and the larger community (Anyte,  Otomo no Sakenoue,  Kassia,  Ise,  Veronica Gambara, Madeleine & Catherine des Roches),

.....on the freedom promised by Buddhism (the theri,  Senshi,  Shikishi), Daoism (Sun Bu-er), Sufism (Zeb-un-Nissa), and bhakti (Bahina),

.....and on the immortality promised by the creation of works that would be read in the future (Isabella Morra,  Gaspara Stampa).

You will also find what is called visionary literature: prose or poetry, or a combination of the two, that tells of interactions or conversations with non-corporeal beings. Although the songs of the Buddhist theri tell of conversations with Mara (illusion), most of the visionary writings come from Christian Europe.

Some of these visionary works pose a problem for a modern reader. Were the women who wrote of such experiences frauds? If not, what brought about their altered states of consciousness? Did they suffer from hysteria, migraine, epilepsy, clinical depression? Or did they simply live in a culture which accepted such conversations and which urged them to imagine themselves in situations in which such conversations could occur? Why not read one or more of them (perhaps Gertrud of Helfta or Julian of Norwich) before you make up up your mind?

What you may find is that the mere fact of their visions is the least interesting thing about the visionary women; it is how they described those experiences and what they did with them that remains with the reader: Hildegard of Bingen,  Elisabeth of Schonau, and Birgitta of Sweden using reports of their visions to effect political and ecclesiastical change, Margareta Ebner revealing the human need for human affection, Catherine of Bologna teaching the danger of deception in vision itself.

========================================================================

Why would you want to read these women's writing?

Perhaps out of curiosity? How did these women see themselves? What were their notions of woman, man, child, family, community, the divine? Why did they write? As writers, how did they make use of their experiences? How did they deal with their society-assigned roles? How did they deal with writing within a male-dominated writing community?

Or perhaps to imagine the possibility of lives not like our own---alien in way of life, world view, and belief? Although we must read from our own point of view, can we at least understand another one?

Or perhaps to help answer other questions: Is there such a thing as a "woman's voice"? A woman's language? A woman's sensibility? Is there something essentially female about these writings that differs from those produced by a male concept of coherence and/or narrative structure? Or, on the contrary, is there no identity of interest on the basis of gender? Or perhaps, for some, a move beyond gender?

We can't know if these writers are representative as women (most women, like most men, didn't write) or even as women writers (much has been lost); however, their writing can show their individual experience, and when all are read, can show a range of women's experience.

===============================================================

What is in each entry?

"Online"

I have tried to include all online translated passages, although if the same translation is found at more than one site, I have indicated only one. If you know of any I have missed (quite likely), or if any disappear (also likely) please e-mail me at the address given at the end of this page. If any originals are online, I've indicated that too; even if you can't read the original, there is value in seeing it---the shape of the line in poetry, the structure of the sentence and the use of repetition in prose.

For sites that give information about the writer, I have not tried to be thorough. I've given only those that offered something not found elsewhere. If you think I've missed something valuable, let me know and I'll check out the site. I'll try to update pages regularly.

The online sites linked from these pages are of course other people's, so I take no responsibility for their content (or writing style); you will find a wide range of belief and interpretation among the site maintainers.

"In print"

The entries are not meant to make up a complete bibliography of translations. My criteria were helpfulness to a general reader (since all are translations from languages other than modern English) and ease of availability (on the principle that if I can lay my hands on a work here in middle America, almost anyone can). When a translation is accompanied by the original, I've indicated that.

To minimize error, the bibliographic information is cut and pasted from Library of Congress entries. To give you an idea of a book's contents, I've included its physical description (including size, if it is unusual) and the Library of Congress' notes. To help you find the work, I've given the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) or the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) when those are available.

The excerpts from the translations are those passages that stayed with me after I had read the whole work. In most cases they are representative of the work (or at least not unrepresentative), but chiefly they are passages that made me think or made me smile, and that are not available online. I hope they will make you want to know more.

Since the purpose of the brief excerpts is to tempt readers to go to the published sources, I believe their presence here is "fair use" and does not infringe on copyright. If, however, any copyright holder objects to the inclusion of particular material, let me know at the e-mail address below, and I will remove all references to that publication.

"Secondary sources"

Perhaps including secondary sources is not a good idea, since I hope you will want to read the work, not merely critics' view of the work. But, because these are works produced in other cultures, some help may be useful. The sources I've listed are those that made me want to go back to the work itself.

In general, I recommend reading the work first, and only then going to the critics---who must read from their points of view, not yours. Be cautious even with introductions to the translations: take what you need to understand the historical background, but don't let the translators' opinions determine your first response.

========================================================================

How can you find these works?

Many of the translations described here are available in bookstores; all are available through public or college libraries. Even if you are not affiliated with a college, all public and most private colleges will allow a community member to use their library and in some cases to borrow books (at least in the USA). Public libraries will usually request books and periodical articles for you via an interlibrary loan system. So, one way or another, you can read the works of these women and hear their voices.

========================================================================

This site (home.infionline.net/~ddisse) is maintained by Dorothy Disse, a retired college teacher of research writing who finally has time to do---and to share---her own research. The site would not have been possible without the services of the staff of Bierce Library at the University of Akron.

Do you have suggestions for additions to the site? Comments on what is here? Let me know at  voices@infionline.net

Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."

Updated 04-07-07