From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature by Barbara Newman (review)

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER valuable insights of his thesis into other areas of Chaucer's poetry in subse­ quent studies. WILLIAM WATTS Butler University BARBARA NEWMAN. From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medi­ eval Religion and Literature. Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995. Pp. vi, 355. $39.95 cloth, $18.95 paper. In a field all but nonexistent twenty years ago but already becoming crowded with competition, Barbara Newman has written the most wide­ ranging and thoroughly researched study to date ofwomen's religious liter­ ature of the Middle Ages. Ranging across time (formally 1100-1500, but in fact drawing on material from late antiquity forward), regional and linguistic borders (particularly German, French, Italian, and English, in addition to Latin), and genres (especially spiritual treatises and hagiogra­ phy, but also romance and courtly literature), Newman provides enough examples to sink an armada of skeptics who would dismiss medieval female piety as somehow unrepresentative of high medieval culture. The range of examples is itself dazzling, and students of religious and feminist history will treasure this book not least for its extensive bibliography and appendi­ ces (the first a catalogue of spiritual treatises, the second a glossary of religious women, both fully annotated). But to prodigious learning and careful scholarship Newman adds other potent critical weapons: acute ana­ lytical powers, a willingness to make well-supported judgments, and best of all a writer's gift for being both clear and engaging because she herself is so thoroughly engaged with her subject. In short, From Virile Woman to WomanChrist is not only good scholarship but a good read. The terms of her title refer to seemingly opposed feminine spiritual ideals: the virile woman or virago, who through chastity escapes the weak­ ness of her sex to become an "honorary male," and the womanChrist, New­ man's term for the millennial goddess figure whose revolutionary power attests to female superiority. While the "from . . . to" form ofthe title may imply some theory of linear progress, in fact the two opposing ideals often appear simultaneously, thus requiring more carefully articulated explana­ tions, which Newman's meticulous readings provide. What the title 260 REVIEWS should suggest is the remarkable variety of female responses to the Chris­ tian calling played out against the"overwhelmingly masculine face" of the medieval Catholic church. Indeed, what is most stimulating about New­ man's work is its insistence on a richly diverse"range of female voices" in the Middle Ages:"No universal discourse, no programmatic ecriture femi­ nine can encompass the commanding speech of Birgitta and Catherine of Siena, the subtle tones of Hadewijch and Julian, the impassioned cries of Angela and Mechthild, the fiery tongue of Na Prous Boneta. But each voice, whether strident or meek, struggled mightily to rise above the back­ ground noise of 'the fathers' clamoring for silence" (p. 245). The first two chapters focus in different ways on that "background noise.""Flaws in the Golden Bowl: Gender and Spiritual Formation in the Twelfth-Century," examines forty-five spiritual treatises on the religious life, works Newman classifies as"literature of formation," especially gender formation. Looking beyond the "casual misogyny" and "ritual praise of women" that litters these texts, Newman compares works addressed to a female versus male audience, observing that those addressed to women focus on preventive measures against the loss of virginity. Since female virginity is"not a state to be achieved but a condition to be preserved," treatises designed for nuns lack the dynamism apparent in those composed for monks, which typically emphasize the common life, ardent monastic friendships, and the active quest for spiritual growth. Chapter 2,"Author­ ity, Authenticity, and the Repression of Heloise," a detailed refutation of the various attacks on the authenticity of Heloise's letters, though skillful, may prove a bit tedious for some readers (but then the attacks themselves are tedious, as Newman shows, since they are often based on a priori no­ tions of gender as narrow as those of medieval misogynists); but her treat­ ment of the reception of Heloise by medieval and Renaissance writers is a useful reminder that for Chaucer and Jean de Meun, Heloise was a fully authorized scholar...