Reading Families : Women's Literate Practice in Late Medieval England

Reading Families : Women's Literate Practice in Late Medieval England.

Rebecca Krug

Hardback. 238p (Cornell UP 2002, Pb 2008). Publishers price € 57,00.

This interesting study goes beyond labels of literate and illiterate, to look at the practical ways in which women engaged with texts and writing in the Later Middle Ages. It emphasises that it was in a familial context that most women would have gained such literacy as they had and engaged with the written word. Rebecca Krug argues that women's reading need not have been an act of defiant rebellion, but also had applications explicitly sanctioned by men such as dictating letters, memorizing scripture and in the day to day running of a household.