The Prime of their Lives
Wise Old Women in Pre-industrial Europe
edited by A.B. Mulder-Bakker and R. Nip
The contributions to this volume show that, in pre-industrial Europe, women in their prime, women, that is, who had reached maturity and were beyond fertility, but not yet in old age, constitute a separate category for historical and literary analysis. These wise old women, or WOWs, took on tasks in society which were essentially different from the ones they had taken on before, mainly in the household. The case studies presented here show that some of these women entered a second phase of creativity and productivity and were even able to fulfil their desires at the age of forty. Being able, at last, to find their authentic selves, they acquired a female voice of their own. For some of them, for example, Christine de Pizan, the age of forty even functioned as a trope of female authorship.
The contributions to this volume show that, in pre-industrial Europe, women in their prime, women, that is, who had reached maturity and were beyond fertility, but not yet in old age, constitute a separate category for historical and literary analysis. These wise old women, or WOWs, took on tasks in society which were essentially different from the ones they had taken on before, mainly in the household. The case studies presented here show that some of these women entered a second phase of creativity and productivity and were even able to fulfil their desires at the age of forty. Being able, at last, to find their authentic selves, they acquired a female voice of their own. For some of them, for example, Christine de Pizan, the age of forty even functioned as a trope of female authorship.
- Edited by AB Mulder-Bakker
- Edited by R Nip
Other Titles in this Series
Europa: Charming Zeus … and Numerous Others!
International Political Economy of EU Accession
Volume 29
Form and Style in Journalism
European Newspapers and the Representation of News, 1880-2005
Volume 26
Commonplace Culture in Western Europe in the Early Modern Period I
Reformation, Counter-Reformation and Revolt
Volume 39
Commonplace Culture in Western Europe in the Early Modern Period II
Consolidation of God-given Power
Volume 40
Commonplace Culture in Western Europe in the Early Modern Period III
Legitimation of Authority
Volume 41
Cultural Mediators
Artists and Writers at the Crossroads of Tradition, Innovation and Reception in the Low Countries and Italy 1450-1650
Volume 31
Lady Macbeth’s Sisters
Women's Power in Political Elites in the Transition from Monarchy to Democracy
Volume 43
Believers in the Nation
European Religious Minorities in the Age of Nationalism (1815-1914)
Volume 52
The Beloved Mothertongue
Ethnolinguistic Nationalism in Small Nations: Inventories and Reflections
Volume 33
Nobilities in Europe in the Twentieth Century
Reconversion Strategies, Memory Culture, and Elite Formation
Volume 50
Understanding Art in Antwerp
Classicising the Popular, Popularising the Classic (1540-1580)
Volume 45
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