'Women Readers: Interactions with Arthurian Literature in Fifteenth-Century England' Seminar

It is well-documented that male readers engaged with Arthurian literature in the later Middle Ages, citing its themes, tenets, and characters in aspects of their written and performed lives. Women also owned Arthurian literature in the Middle Ages, but due to a lack of evidence it has historically been harder to ascertain how they responded to Arthuriana on a personal or performative level, or indeed whether or not they even read the texts that they owned. This paper considers interactions with Arthurian literature and its manuscripts in fifteenth-century England, focusing on inscriptions penned by women. Using what is known of the lives, deaths, and contexts of these inscribers and their manuscripts, and analysing the inscriptions themselves, this paper works towards identifying the role and uses of Arthurian literature in the lives of women in fifteenth-century England.