Hrotsvit of Gandersheim (c.935 - c.975), almost certainly of noble Saxon parentage, was a canoness of the Saxon imperial abbey of Gandersheim, living and working there during its time of greatest material prosperity and cultural and intellectual pre-eminence. Her importance cannot be overestimated: she is the first poet of Saxony; the first known dramatist of Christianity (indeed the first known woman dramatist of any time); and a woman displaying erudition and wit in an essentially patriarchal age, a female author in a literary field dominated by men who insisted on re-evaluating and redrawing the literary depiction of women. Discovered in the late fifteenth century, her extraordinary oeuvre, written in medieval Latin, comprises a wide variety of genres: eight legends, six dramas, and two epics, organised into three books. The present volume contains a selection of Hrotsvit's works in English translation, together with an interpretative essay, critical introduction, and scholarly apparatus. Professor KATHARINA WILSONteaches at the University of Georgia.

Book Information
ISBN 9780859914895
Author Katharina M. Wilson
Format Paperback
Page Count 136
Imprint D.S. Brewer
Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Weight(grams) 194g