Sounding Trumpets, Chords of Light, and Little Knives

Medieval women writers often characterized their writings and themselves through lovely and intricate metaphors: Hrotsvit von Gandersheim was a small trumpet, Hildegard von Bingen tinkling chords of light, and Christine de Pizan a little knife. Although women authors in the Middle Ages may have been less numerous than men, they nevertheless played a significant role, contributing important colors, textures, and patterns to the age's literary feast. Like all legacies, theirs resists easy classification. Women writers often differed from their male counterparts, but their work does not simply reflect or invert patterns found in those counterparts's texts, nor are texts by women monolithic in their approaches, styles, or themes as the various metaphoric self-identifications suggest. As with literature written by men, historical and cultural forces, the author's and audience's social milieus, and yes, individual talent imparted diverse characteristics to women's writing. They did not differ from men in the requirements for and circumstances of their creative endeavors, nor did they necessarily speak with one voice when they disputed (or concurred with) the largely male paradigms that shaped medieval life. When women writers of the Middle Ages sought to subvert the dominant (male) paradigm, they did so like other marginalized groups—either by appropriating or occasionally by replacing the paradigm with non-hierarchical, egalitarian, holistic models. ¹