The Women Troubadours (Norton Paperback) [Paperback]

Meg Bogin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 1980 | Series: Norton Paperback

An introduction to the women poets of 12th-century Provence and a collection of their poems.

This is the first twentieth-century study of the women troubadours who flourished in Southern France between 1150 and 1250—the great period of troubadour poetry. The book is comprised of a full-length essay on women in the Middle Ages, twenty-three poems by the women troubadours themselves in the original Provencal with translations on facing pages, a capsule biography of each poet, notes, and reading list.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Meg Bogin has unearthed one of the strongest and loveliest of the varied fragments of women's culture. Her translations . . . will delight any woman who cares about our creative tradition. (Adrienne Rich )

Meg Bogin has lit the poems of the women of an earlier age . . . and given them to us in their full power. (Muriel Rukeyser )

Meg Bogin rescues from neglect the women poets who wrote beside the more famous male troubadours of courtly love in Southern France. . . . The strength of her presentation lies in her case for the sudden emergence of these 'first female voices' in twelfth-century feudal Languedoc. (Marina Warner - Manchester Guardian )

A study that fascinates. . . . A thorough and insightful tribute to those women . . . who left for us a few, clarion, powerful love poems. (Janet Beeler - American Poetry Review )

Modern readers will find [the poems] surprisingly fresh in their direct treatment of the man-woman relationships, and will particularly enjoy the resonance they take on from a reading of Ms. Bogin's sketch of the historic background. (Publishers Weekly )

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (March 17, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393009653
• ISBN-13: 978-0393009651
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars valuable yet boring, December 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Women Troubadours (Norton Paperback) (Paperback)

I'm surprised that no one has yet written a review of this book; of all books on Provencale poetry, this is the most common in bookstores at the moment.

Here's my blurb for the uninitiated: The Troubadours were these fantastic baudy poets who composed in Old Provencale during the 12th Century, all around such characters as Eleanor of Aquataine. Everyone should find out more about them. But the big extra are the Trobaritz, women troubadours; for they actually composed extensively as well. We finally get to hear the other side of courtly love.

And for the initiated: Certainly this book is a great contribution to the study of Provencal poetry, literary feminism, etc etc. It is the most thorough yet approachable group of translations out there. But the translations are a bit clumsy. The poems come out pretty boring. The book depends on the value of the poetry of the Trobaritz as work by women, its feminist appeal, rather than its literary appeal; and that's both sad and dull. As one of the first serious treatments of the poetry of the Trobaritz it's invaluable, thank God it was written, it is the best so far that I know of. I'd be enormously proud of myself, if I completed such a work. But it is not as inspired a treatment as the Trobaritz deserve. Hopefully The Women Troubadours will pave the way for better translations that appreciate the poetry as well as the gender theory.

But then I have a general inclination to find the English translations grossly inadequate; so I'm certainly biased. Anyone want to improve upon my customer comment?

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Get this for the poetry, not for the history., December 20, 2001

By 

Cas (the Idaho mountains) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The women troubadours (Hardcover)

I got this expecting some history of the women troubadours, but the history presented was, to put it most charitably, old research at best. I spotted numerous historical flaws, particularly around the so-called "droit du seigneur" which supposedly gave lords carte blanche to deflower virgins before they married. Current research seems to indicate that this custom was not at all pervasive, but Bogin makes it sound like /every/ lord was out boffing brides and she spends quite a while dwelling on the implications of it. That just irked me and was hardly the only inaccuracy I detected. The general tone is of a strident feminist stomping on those nasty ol' medieval men, something else that irritated me. I truly suspect that the book is just based on old research, and a new treatment might say something entirely different.

The author is at her best when she's talking about individual women troubadours and recording their actual songs/poems. I really haven't seen such a treasure trove of primary-source poetry and songs, so I'd definitely consider this as an addition to any budding bard's library; I'm glad I got it, myself. Just don't take the historical notes too seriously without doing a bit of research yourself for verification -- it is really hysterical in places.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Valuable and interesting - as literary history, July 7, 2000

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Women Troubadours (Norton Paperback) (Paperback)

This volume aims for a college audience in that provides extensive background to understand the social context of the poetry - something a scholar of the poetry would know - and it provides rather literal translations of the poems - rather than reworkings of the poems that work in English. As such, this is a book you read for what you can learn rather than for literary pleasure.

Nonetheless, it is enjoyable reading for someone (like myself) with no particular interest in the region or the time nor interest in female literature solely for the gender of the author.

The most surprising piece is a poem written by a woman to a woman. One of the more interesting to me, is a poem which straddles the troubador and religious traditions.