Uncovering the secret: Medieval women, magic and the other
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Date
2014
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
For medieval audiences women occupied a specific, designated cultural area which, while they
could freely form it according to their will and nature, was in fact imaginary and immaterial.
Women in social, legal, and religious contexts were mostly counted among the receptive, inactive,
and non-ruling groups. On both levels, there was a group of features universally defining all
women: the strong, virtuous and independent model Aquinas lamented was replaced in real life by
the sinful, carnal and weak stereotype, and the erotic, emotional, mysterious, and often wild type
present predominantly in literature. Indeed, women were a source of scientific, theological, and
cultural fascination because of their uncanny and complex nature, producing both fear and desire
of the source and nature of the unattainable and inaccessible femininity. In social contexts, however,
the enchantress seems to lose that veil of allure and, instead, is forced to re-define her identity
by suppressing, denying, or losing her supernatural features. With the example of Saint Agnes
from the South English Legendary Life of Saint Agnes, and Melior from Partonope of Blois (ca.
1450), the article will explore how medieval texts dealt with the complex and unruly female
supernatural, and how its neutralization and subduing fitted into the moral, scientific, and cultural
norms of medieval society.
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Research for this article was made possible by the generous funding of the National Science Centre (NCN) for the project: 2013/09/N/HS2/02213.
Keywords
medieval, women, magic, supernatural, society
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 49.2 (2014), pp. 83-103