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Jul. 22nd, 2006 08:54 pmYesterday I stopped agonising over world view stuff and remembered that scholarly writings are a tad different in nature to fictional writings. Just a tad.
Instead of defining my ground with utmost care (world building, character development, cool mind experiments), I did four hours of basic bibliography (literature survey, establishing current state of knowledge in the field, amassing an understanding of where I *can* go - as opposed to where I *want* to go - with this article). There are two really good and easily-available databases of recent publications for many facets of womenstuff in the Middle Ages and they have just saved me much angst. I still have other stuff to look for, but those databases saved me hours of fretting and small fiddles.
The nature of surviving records combine with preconceptions to give scholarship a path which is always interesting, but not always broad. There tends to be a lot of cool scholarship covering a narrow band of knowledge. Sometimes this is not by choice but by accessibility of material or other strange but true factors. Sometimes choosing a path is because, say, Julian of Norwich is someone's dream so they follow the horde of Medivealists who have focussed on mysticism. I'm not really sure that we know how important mysticism was in the wider contexts of the Middle Ages, but it sure means a lot to modern medievalists (I am *not* the very model of a modern medievalist - in case you needed to know.). And all this is simplified because I am in a simple mood. Or was that simply in a mood? - I am at the bad stage of my bibliography, with way, way more questions than answers - I can't find any precise previous studies, yet, either. Precise studies that deal with my subject means I could stand on the shoulders of earlier scholarship for this article - which is really just a summary of the status quo on the subject - and it’s a good thing 'cos it means I can think less and write more fiction with my free time. Except so far there are no previous studies….
My mind is adrift in a morass of citations. Although the morass is now only ninety pages worth.
When I was bibliographying last night and foolishly developing the fabulously cheerful and insightful academic state I am in today (I should write with a touch less sarcasm, perhaps?), I realised that studies of Jewish and Christian women in the Middle Ages very, very seldom meet up at any point. We know so much more about Jewish women from financial and legal records than from literary records. Literature has been very important for establishing stuff about Christian women. The upshot is that when you compare the nature of the studies you get the feeling that Christian and Jewish women live in different universes, rather than next door to each other. We have compared religious texts of Jewish and Christian lives in France and England and nearby countries and we have some truly wonderful analyses of what is expected by the religious leaders and thinkers regionally, over time and in each religion. Daily selves don't fit religious norms. For which I am truly grateful - I do not want to lead the life of a rabbi and I can bet you that no rabbi in his/her right mind would want to lead my life.
I am not saying this well. In fact, today is a day of great witter.
Let's find a modern comparison. If you do an historical study of me through tax records, I come across as one type of person. A cautious one, mainly. If you look at me from my fiction, then I seem to be quite a different person - more daring and definitely more colourful. If you use my non-fiction (including this blog) then the world changes again. I have no idea how I appear through my non-fiction - and I'm guessing about the fictional me, too. If you look at me through minutes of meetings, then a very strong Gillian appears, one who can crush mountains with her fists (maybe I don't see myself accurately?). If the only testimony to my personality is a rather nasty poem inventing evil things about me, then that is different again. It isn't until you combine all these sources that you get a better picture of me. Even if you combine all the sources, though, some elements are missing. Drinking water, bathing, sweeping the floor, grumbling about the doctor - these things don't creep into the written record easily.
So choosing a few types of record only to establish the lives of Jewish women and a few other types of records to establish the lives of Christian women is fraught. There is some brilliant scholarship on both Christian women and Jewish women. Insightful and fascinating. It just doesn’t meet in the middle. I have lots of problems with this. My problems will be resolved, because scholarship changes over time and until recently Jewish and Christian women didn't get many studies of any sort and quite a few of those gaps are slowly being filled. In the meantime, I remain grouchy. I want my knowledge in takeaway containers. I want it NOW and I want it home delivered. Because otherwise that ninety page bibliography will have to grow before it shrinks and then I read things and then - maybe- I can think about writing.
Instead of defining my ground with utmost care (world building, character development, cool mind experiments), I did four hours of basic bibliography (literature survey, establishing current state of knowledge in the field, amassing an understanding of where I *can* go - as opposed to where I *want* to go - with this article). There are two really good and easily-available databases of recent publications for many facets of womenstuff in the Middle Ages and they have just saved me much angst. I still have other stuff to look for, but those databases saved me hours of fretting and small fiddles.
The nature of surviving records combine with preconceptions to give scholarship a path which is always interesting, but not always broad. There tends to be a lot of cool scholarship covering a narrow band of knowledge. Sometimes this is not by choice but by accessibility of material or other strange but true factors. Sometimes choosing a path is because, say, Julian of Norwich is someone's dream so they follow the horde of Medivealists who have focussed on mysticism. I'm not really sure that we know how important mysticism was in the wider contexts of the Middle Ages, but it sure means a lot to modern medievalists (I am *not* the very model of a modern medievalist - in case you needed to know.). And all this is simplified because I am in a simple mood. Or was that simply in a mood? - I am at the bad stage of my bibliography, with way, way more questions than answers - I can't find any precise previous studies, yet, either. Precise studies that deal with my subject means I could stand on the shoulders of earlier scholarship for this article - which is really just a summary of the status quo on the subject - and it’s a good thing 'cos it means I can think less and write more fiction with my free time. Except so far there are no previous studies….
My mind is adrift in a morass of citations. Although the morass is now only ninety pages worth.
When I was bibliographying last night and foolishly developing the fabulously cheerful and insightful academic state I am in today (I should write with a touch less sarcasm, perhaps?), I realised that studies of Jewish and Christian women in the Middle Ages very, very seldom meet up at any point. We know so much more about Jewish women from financial and legal records than from literary records. Literature has been very important for establishing stuff about Christian women. The upshot is that when you compare the nature of the studies you get the feeling that Christian and Jewish women live in different universes, rather than next door to each other. We have compared religious texts of Jewish and Christian lives in France and England and nearby countries and we have some truly wonderful analyses of what is expected by the religious leaders and thinkers regionally, over time and in each religion. Daily selves don't fit religious norms. For which I am truly grateful - I do not want to lead the life of a rabbi and I can bet you that no rabbi in his/her right mind would want to lead my life.
I am not saying this well. In fact, today is a day of great witter.
Let's find a modern comparison. If you do an historical study of me through tax records, I come across as one type of person. A cautious one, mainly. If you look at me from my fiction, then I seem to be quite a different person - more daring and definitely more colourful. If you use my non-fiction (including this blog) then the world changes again. I have no idea how I appear through my non-fiction - and I'm guessing about the fictional me, too. If you look at me through minutes of meetings, then a very strong Gillian appears, one who can crush mountains with her fists (maybe I don't see myself accurately?). If the only testimony to my personality is a rather nasty poem inventing evil things about me, then that is different again. It isn't until you combine all these sources that you get a better picture of me. Even if you combine all the sources, though, some elements are missing. Drinking water, bathing, sweeping the floor, grumbling about the doctor - these things don't creep into the written record easily.
So choosing a few types of record only to establish the lives of Jewish women and a few other types of records to establish the lives of Christian women is fraught. There is some brilliant scholarship on both Christian women and Jewish women. Insightful and fascinating. It just doesn’t meet in the middle. I have lots of problems with this. My problems will be resolved, because scholarship changes over time and until recently Jewish and Christian women didn't get many studies of any sort and quite a few of those gaps are slowly being filled. In the meantime, I remain grouchy. I want my knowledge in takeaway containers. I want it NOW and I want it home delivered. Because otherwise that ninety page bibliography will have to grow before it shrinks and then I read things and then - maybe- I can think about writing.