Watt, Diane ed. _Medieval Women in Their Communities._ (Toronto,
Buffalo: U Toronto P, 1997). 250 pp.

Reviewed by Michelle M. Sauer-Bures, mmsauer@unicorn.it.wsu.edu,
Washington State University.

This collection of essays, concentrating on 1200 CE to 1500 CE, is
both wide-ranging and narrowly focused. It is particularly valuable
for its attention to lesser studied locales such as Wales, and more
obscure works such as _fe Wohunge of Ure Lauerd_, although
canonical works such as the _Canterbury Tales_ are not overlooked.
Watt's introduction, besides doing a credible job of linking these
diverse texts and topics, also provides a brief history of
community studies.

What is a community? This collection attempts not only to examine
this question, but to redefine its answer. Watt notes that a
previous major study on communities, a special issue of _Signs_,
broke ground and furnished a profitable beginning. However, there
is still much work to be done in this area, and this text furthers
the field immensely.

Community itself is a fluid term as these essays illustrate. In
this collection, women are grouped together based not only on where
they live or what they do; women align themselves by language,
beliefs, class, and socio-economic status. Secular women are not
always divided from the religious, and the old are not always
separate from the young. Whatever the alignment, communities share
some sort ot identity, and these essays adroitly attempt to define
those chosen identities. Although Watt does not specifically point
this out, it is important to realize, and these innovative
selections support this, that medieval women's communities were not
necessarily composed solely of other females. Too frequently the
secular women of the larger community are neglected in favor of
cloistered mystics. This assortment not only balances secular and
religious, but perhaps overcompensates in favor of the secular.
This may be forgiven, however, because the varied definitions of
otherness and community more than compensate for the lack of
enclosed women.

This collection also takes on the feminist stance that division
means separation and rejection. While it is true that these
communities achieved a certain measure of autonomy, ultimately
women in the Middle Ages were answerable to men. The writers
explore these groups of women in their relation to the collective
society. While the notion of a radical female community may not
have existed, there were certainly clearly definable relationships
among women that bound them together in community groups. These
connections did not necessarily sever the feminine from society. In
many instances these associations were fairly unconstrained and
strengthened the women's places in the Church and in the world.

The scope of this text is broad, and the title even broader. Yet,
these works come together in such a way that the reader is left
with a greater understanding not only of medieval constructions of
gender, but also with a better grasp of the importance of
relationships between women in medieval society. The collection is
interdisciplinary, although the two most prominent disciplines
are history and literature. The lack of fine arts is a noticeable
oversight in the disciplines; perhaps these approaches are being
reserved for a future collection.

Although the critical lens of each author is specific to her essay,
it would be difficult to deny the presence of a feminist stance,
especially in a work dedicated to gender constructions.  Several
essays examine social issues such as education. Marie-Luise
Ehrenschwendtner's essay concentrates on Dominican convents of
southern Germany vernacular usage. By actively choosing
to support their native language, these nuns did not allow their
lack of education to limit them nuns wrote and became important
contributors to the growth of indigenous religiosity.

The essays addressing class provide a new view of the aristocracy.
In these , the nobility has a specific function that
supports the other classes, and the resulting intertwinement of the
classes correlates with urban development. The beguine communities
of Northern France are Penelope Galloway's subject, and her focus
is not the beguines themselves, but rather their extended
community, specifically their patrons. She illustrates that the
predominately female beguine movement crossed gender and class
lines in patronage, and could claim the support of ruling families.
Jennifer Ward also looks at the interaction of the upper and lower
classes. Noble women in particular provided a framework for the
several communities within the household.  In Patricia Skinner's
contribution, she emends the traditional view of the destitute
woman as society's burden by demonstrating the spiritual and
secular importance of almsgiving to noblewoman. Matters of the soul
soon became intertwined with social responsibilities.

Another interesting theme explored by several pieces is
domesticity. Too often feminist critics are quick to dismiss
domestic criticism as trivial. The selections demonstrate how
stereotypes can be reappropriated and used to further the
previously oppressed. Jane Cartwright tackles Welsh communities, a
little explored area of medieval studies. She looks mostly at
_Cywyddwyr_ poetry to argue for the domestication of Welsh
devotion. J.A. Tasioulas examines the N-Town Marian plays, and
delivers a plausible argument disputing previous claims that the
cycle was written for a religious community, and in doing so,
illustrates the Virgin Mary's contributions to the conception of
the household and the female community.

A specific type of female community, the enclosed community is
addressed both by Susannah Mary Chewning and by Rosalynn Voaden.
Voaden's essay examines the convent of Helfta in Saxony, which
boasted three important visionaries, Gertrude the Great, Mechtild
of Hackeborn, and Mechtild of Magdeburg lived and wrote there. The
first two visionaries, wrote in a distinctly biologically female
manner, and all emphasized the role of community support in
spirituality. Chewning's contribution on _fe Wohunge_ relies upon
French feminist, post-structuralist theories in exploring the loss
of the self within the divine, and the ramifications of that loss
within the community. Both authors provide overwhelming evidence
for uniquely female texts, devoid of a male presence, physical
authorship aside. Mystic writing as a whole becomes the realm of
the feminine.

Contrasting communities and otherness provide the background for
the remaining selections. Cynthia Kraman and Janet Wilson supply
fresh perspectives on more traditional works. In a boldly clever
move, Kraman utilizes rabbinical commentary on the _Song of Songs_
to trace the conceptions of otherness within the _Merchant's Tale_,
allying the sexual female body with the ostracized Jewish
commentaries. Wilson carries on this theme of marginality with her
claim that Kempe and her _Book_ exist within the tension between
the secular and ecclesiastical communities. Kempe's text chronicles
her disruptions, and in doing so, forces acknowledgment of
spiritual crisis and lay animosity within the community.

This is a valuable collection to have, for its very existence
emphasizes the important new directions beginning and continuing in
medieval feminist studies. The exciting collection of authors are
fairly new to the field, yet provide a balanced view and a variety
of approaches. This work invites further contemplation and
conversation on a topic that has barely been scratched.