ABSTRACT
In this essay Robertson claims medieval female piety as a position of power, and not, as has been argued, one of submission to a patriarchal Christian system, insisting on the authenticity of the spiritual benefits it brings, as well as on (following Luce Irigaray) the opportunity it provides to escape a ‘societally defined femininity’. The socially marginalized position occupied by women in fact enables a powerful identification with Christ (as outcast) himself, and in her reading of the Prioress’s Tale Robertson sees a feminine spirituality (represented in the story of the young boy) triumphing over the official spirituality of the Church, within which at this time the offices of women like the Prioress were being increasingly subordinated to male control. For more on Robertson’s essay, see my Introduction, p. 9.
