Mystic women and lyric poets in medieval society

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This book explores the literature that characterized the Romanesque period in Central Europe from 900 to 1300, highlighting the contributions of clerics and monks who shaped the perception of the Middle Ages as a bookish and spiritual era. While oral culture represented the largely illiterate population, it played a subordinate role. Nevertheless, individualistic oral lay culture maintained its significance, influencing and moderating the church's reformative intellectualism. By the early eleventh century, knighthood began to set the cultural tone, leading to the emergence of new secular literature in the German vernacular by the late thirteenth century, marking a shift from religious to secular themes. Chivalry introduced competing values alongside those of the church. The study covers six key topics: empirical and spiritual knowledge, Medieval Liturgical Drama, Middle High German Epic Poetry, Courtly Romances, and Middle High German Lyric Poetry. Some Latin literature aimed at educating an audience on the moral dangers of secular works. The role of women as both practitioners and subjects in religious and secular contexts gained prominence. While these literary genres served didactic purposes, they also reflected the erosion of cultural supports and the societal changes leading to the eventual collapse during the Romanesque period.