Widows and Widowhood

Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz thrive during a dark time in Israel’s history—the days when the judges governed. The final two segments in Judges (chaps. 17–21) summarily demonstrate that when autonomy prevails, people and society deteriorate into spiritual and moral chaos. According to many scholars, the book of Ruth stands as an independent novella encouraging random acts of love and kindness. On the other hand, many Bible interpreters contend that the book of Ruth whispers daringly as a diatribe of two industrious women who manipulate a male-dominated society through sexual prowess in order to survive. Through the grammatical-historical method and a close examination of the canonical text, I conclude that these books are integrally connected and that the characters in Ruth provide a stark contrast to those in the summary episodes of Judges. I show that through the use of historical setting, behavioral contrasts, and intertextual connections with Torah the author of the book of Ruth provides a subtle polemic against personal autonomy. This polemic, although specific to its historical backdrop when the judges governed, continues to cry out against personal autonomy and provide hope through obedience to the spirit of Torah.

This article traces the plight of the widows of Scottish soldiers who participated in the Thirty Years' War. Contrasting a number of strategies the women used in two main contrasting legal systems (Dutch & Swedish), this article offers an alternative to the usual worn narrative that women were abandoned or had no agency. Indeed from the wives of generals to the common soldiers it is clear that women could rely on a combination of kith and kin structures and state and crown intervention to recover pensions and property. Some widows made the long journey to the state they petitioned to claim their rights, others returned home from abroad.

This is a pilot project for a much larger survey on the topic and the authors welcome feedback on it.

In this paper, the patriarchal politics involved in remarrying the widow in colonial Bengal is delved into with special reference to Rituparno Ghosh's highly successful cinematic adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore's novel 'Chokher Bali'. The paper then shifts to the filmmaker's attempt at reversing the 'gaze' of popular cinema, and examines how successfully or not so successfully he could address the issue. Is a 'female' or 'queer' gaze at all possible? Is it possible not to subscribe to the patriarchal language of cinema?

Referāts veltīts atraitnībai latviešu literatūrā, šoreiz pievēršoties sieviešu tēliem un viņu izpratnei par dzīvi pēc laulātā miršanas. Izvēlējos analizēt visai plaša žanra un noskaņas darbus: Rūdolfa Blaumaņa noveli "Raudupiete" (1889), Viļa Plūdoņa poēmu "Atraitnes dēls" (1901), Andreja Upīša komēdiju "Atraitnes vīrs" (1925), Dagnijas Zigmontes stāstu "Zēberga atraitne" (no stāstu krājuma "Strazdu vakars" (1976)) un Janas Egles stāstus "Pīle" un "Aleksandra ir skaista" (no stāstu krājuma "Dzimšanas diena" (2020)). Aiz simboliskas svītras palika Andra Kolberga romāns "Atraitne janvārī" (1984), jo nosaukums ir maldinošs un atraitnības analīzei šis darbs izrādījās gandrīz pilnīgi nepiemērots. Jāpiezīmē, ka arī atraitnis kā tēls būtu visai saistošas un neatklātas latviešu literatūras teritorijas elements, tomēr šis apskats ir pelnījis atsevišķu pētījumu.

""Widowhood has long been recognised as a complex social status for medieval women: widows were granted legal rights and exercised authority unavailable to married women. At the same time, without the benefit of male protection, widows were exposed to a number of hazards. However, the means by which medieval widows manipulated their position for their own gain or protection – through remarriage, choosing to remain single or other means – has rarely been explored in the medieval context.

This paper addresses the question of widows’ status by exploring the political and personal manoeuvrings of Alice de Lacy, countess of Lincoln and Salisbury. The widow of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, Alice found herself in a precarious position after her husband’s execution for treason in 1322. Widowhood made Alice vulnerable to many of the dangers experienced by single women, including loss of lands and income, as well as abduction. At the same time, she was able to exercise a large degree of personal autonomy, managing her remaining property and making her own choices in terms of remarriage. This paper will examine three key periods of Alice’s widowhood – the aftermath of Thomas of Lancaster’s execution, her second marriage to Sir Ebulo Lestrange, and her abduction by and third marriage to Sir Hugh de Frene.

I argue that, while Alice de Lacy experienced many of the problems that we might expect of a fourteenth-century widow, she also manipulated her status to circumvent the system that constrained her actions. By exploring the many avenues of power available to Alice de Lacy, I shed light on both the hazards and possibilities of medieval widowhood. ""

The issue of remarriages is one of the important aspects of the demographic development of pre-modern societies, to which, however, Czech historiography devotes relatively little attention. The study compares the situation in two socially and economically different South Bohemian parishes at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. On the example of the regional metropolis of České Budějovice, the surrounding villages and the purely rural areas around Nový Rychnov, the study tries to contribute to the clarification of some aspects of palingam marriages at the turn of the old and the new demographic regime, with the help of quantitative analysis of registers of marriages. It focuses primarily on the frequency of second marriages and the age of widowed fiancés and their counterparts.

Whereas recent studies of early modern widowhood by social, economic and cultural historians have called attention to the often ambiguous, yet also often empowering, experience and position of widows within society, Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe is the first book to consider the distinct and important relationship between ritual and representation. The fifteen new interdisciplinary essays assembled here read widowhood as a catalyst for the production of a significant body of visual material-representations of, for and by widows, whether through traditional media, such as painting, sculpture and architecture, or through the so-called 'minor arts,' including popular print culture, medals, religious and secular furnishings and ornament, costume and gift objects, in early modern Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Arranged thematically, this unique collection allows the reader to recognize and appreciate the complexity and contradiction, iconicity and mutability, and timelessness and timeliness of widowhood and representation.

It's a research proposal and this one focuses on 'fake encounters' which are common in India.So, it is sociological attempt to trace the history of 'encounter' (Emile Durkheim  study of 'primitive to modern society' is the base of the study),some of the causes and consequences of 'fake encounters'.

San Pablo (1 Tim 5, 3-16) revela la existencia en la antigüedad cristiana - y persistiendo hasta bien entrada la Edad Media - de un antiguo Orden de Viudas al lado del renombrado Orden de las Vírgenes. Ahora, el más reciente Sínodo de los Obispos de 2015, en el artículo 19 de su documento final, sugiere que el orden de las viudas consagradas sea restaurado. En este artículo, a continuación, se propone ofrecer un estudio de referencia. Después de una síntesis del Ordo viduarum en la historia antigua y medieval, presenta la realidad de la viudez consagrada en la Iglesia Latina contemporánea. Desde mediados del siglo XX, incipientes ordenes de viudas han llegado a existir en varias diócesis en Europa, especialmente en Italia, Polonia y los EE.UU. Describo esta realidad plenamente consciente de que no existe un canon en el Codex Iuris Canonici del 1983 que los establezca, y que hay un sólo canon promulgado en el Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium de 1990 (c. 570). El artículo ofrece un comentario exegético del canon 570, así como consideraciones relativas a cuestiones prácticas previstas para el derecho particular, tales como calificaciones para las viudas consagradas, impedimentos, los requisitos formativos, y la liturgia de la profesión. El artículo concluye con una biografía canónica y apéndices con ejemplos del derecho particular y liturgias desarrolladas para este instituto jurídico.

An intriguing point of disagreement is evident among recent commentators on Mark 12:41-44 as to how we should understand the poor widow’s offering, whether as a positive or negative image. The crucial issue, raised for the first time by A.G. Wright, is a proper grasp of the immediate narrative context of the poor widow’s story, which in his case produced the lamentable reading of widow’s “deed.” Nevertheless, by widening the immediate narrative context and reading the account within the larger Markan framework, the interpretative ambiguity disappears. The widow is presented to Jesus’ disciples, and to the readers of the Markan story, as a positive example of self-denial motivated by faith, love and devotion toward God. Thus, she not only stands as a symbol of the faithful remnant of Israel, but, most importantly, presents a picture of Jesus’ own self-offering on the cross.

Uno dei più antichi canti popolari abruzzesi è il Lamento della vedova, conosciuto anche come "Mari maje, scura maje", dalle parole del ritornello. Esso presenta caratteristiche di sommo interesse, oltre a collegamenti inaspettati: dalla parentela con una melodia balcanica usata da Mahler, al "Maramao" citato da Giuseppe Gioachino Belli.

The aim of the study is to identify the churches’ role in demystifying widowhood and equipping widows to cope effectively with challenges of widowhood. The study was conducted in the Cape Coast metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana. The study was basically descriptive and exploratory with a sample size of 153 respondents from Orthodox and Pentecostal churches. Multiple sampling processes were used which included simple, systematic, purposive and snow balling procedures. Data was collected within six weeks using interview schedules, questionnaires and focus group discussion guides. The quantitative data was analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software. The main findings of the study were:
The majority of the widows practiced widowhood rites because they feared possible mishap in case of non-compliance. The widows encountered physical, emotional, socioeconomic and spiritual challenges during widowhood. Most widows used prayer and counselling to cope with physical, emotional and spiritual challenges. The main strategies adopted for socioeconomic challenges were taking of loans and financial support from children. Almost all the churches did not have data on widows or any structural program for demystifying or preparing members toward widowhood. There were no rehabilitation or support systems. The religious leaders responded to individual case as appropriate. The leaders used visitation, prayer and counselling to help widows cope with their challenges but the support was given mostly before burial and during the funeral. The widows rarely got any support after the funeral. It seems the church has neglected one important aspect of Christianity, that is the ministry of widows, which is an integral part of Jesus’ ministry of love and compassion. The church should therefore wake up to her responsibility and seek urgent redress to this grievous omission through innovative pragmatic policies and programs.

We are badly served by the documents we use to study widows and widowes with: they distort the realities. While Austen's writing has some limitations (she depicts gentry), it is of use as a corrective and reveals her complex attitudes and the realities of the era. Fear of widowhood pervades her fiction for women; the  men seek to remarry, but not wisely; we see how when one parent dies, the one who is left may abuse the child; how unwise remarriages inflict damage on those near. The widowhood of her great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Weller Austen stands out in its poignant defiance of her family as she sought minimal economic independence and gentility for her children; the depiction of Henry Austen as a widow has been overlooked; also her own obsessive depictions of death, and wild antipathetic stances. The frequency of death in people's lives from a young age in Austen's era is not enough to account for her uses of widowhood:  in the case of women, as a disastrously precipitating factor in her fiction; in the case of men covering up a previous daily tyrannies and inflicted worry and frustration for the now dead wives; and in the case of children, powerlessness before an abusive parent or new step-parent. Austen delineates and attacks not just those who confront their disasters with strong sensibility to show the high price such people and their involved relatives pay for feeling and/or finding themselves in vulnerable places in the social and economic arrangements of the later 18th century.

Inheritance right under Yoruba customary law which is applicable to the Awori, grants equality and equity in distribution of an intestate estate of a deceased person between the children, both male and female alike, to the exclusion of the widow. This is based on the premise that devolution of property follows the blood. Consequently, unless a property is given to a wife and it is proved to be an outright gift, it will pass on the husband’s death as family property to be inherited by the husband’s children or the husband’s family where there are no children. The wife has no right of inheritance whatsoever. This brings about widowhood rites and the consequent discriminatory practices, together with economic and psychological challenges. This research highlights the scope and the limitations of the Constitution and other international instrument in the erosion of inhuman or discriminatory practices against women; some of the forms of discrimination that hinders women fundamental human rights, suggesting necessary reforms to curb some of these identified disinheritance customs and conclude that constitutional and statutory provisions may provide the foundation to the elimination of discriminatory or other practices that fail to meet the test of public policy or repugnancy among the Awori people.

Different scholars in their studies have pointed out that the bulk of the earliest colonial literature was aimed at highlighting ‘the peculiarities of Hindu tradition’ and especially the ‘barbarities’ Indian women were subjected to.  Colonial literature abounds with images of the Indian woman/girl as a victim of different kinds of gendered oppression. Many scholars have pointed out that a society’s treatment of its women was frequently held as evidence of its degree of civilization. Thus, one of the ways in which the Colonizers tried distinguish themselves from the Colonized was by promoting a discourse of gendered difference, where the Colonizers were projected as ‘paternalists’ who would help in liberating the Indian women from the shackles of traditional oppression. The reformist resolution of the question of enforced ascetic widowhood, thus, needs to be placed in the larger context of Colonial Agenda.

Dünyanın pek çok yerinde karşımıza çıkan dulluk sorunsalı, Hint kadınları için bir hayatta kalma mücadelesi adeta. “Hindistan'ın dulları“ meselesini yüzyılın buhranları çerçevesinde inceleyen araştırmacı Zeynep Yaşar, bu çalışmada dulluk meselesini, Hindistan kast sistemini, Antik Hint ritüelleri (Sati / Jahudar) ile yüceltilen kadın imajı perspektifini ve bu ritüellerin yasaklanma mücadelelerini, Kerala’lı Nangeli ve kocası örneğinden başlayarak Şukasaptati ve Tutiname gibi masallarda Hint Kadın imajını, tarihsel boyutuyla kuramsal olarak ve tanıklıklar üzerinden inceliyor.

Titiz bir saha çalışması olarak ortaya çıkan bu kitapta “dulların şehri” Vrindavan ve “gidecek yeri olmayanların şehri” Varanasi'ye yolculuk eden, Tanrı Krişna’ya dua ederek ölüm gününü bekleyen kadınların hikâyelerini kendi ağızlarından dinleyecek, Hint araştırmacıların kitap için kaleme aldığı makale ile ülkenin çeşitli bölgelerindeki dulluk sorunsalına  farklı pencerelerden bakacaksınız.

https://kopernikkitap.com/hindistanin-dullari-ve-kadin

In parallel to the professionalization process of the Spanish armies under the Bourbon dynasty and its reforms there was an increase of bureaucracy and a growing systematization in the production of new documents, which reflected the relationship between senior officers and lower ranks. Among these files, ranging from service records and letters to petitions and memorials, there is a remarkable set of documentation that has not been studied in depth yet. We are referring to the files produced by female relatives of those soldiers.
These sources, preserved to a great extent in the General Archive of Simancas, show how, despite certain widespread prejudices, ordinary women of the eighteenth century would address the authorities directly whenever their family interests were challenged by adverse circumstances, displaying a degree of empowerment superior to what is frequently believed for that time.
Two main lines of action can be tracked. One is the protection of the economic stability of the family by demanding overdue payments, the recognition of pensions or compensations, significantly when the men were absent, whether in campaign or deployed far from home. The second is the intercession in favour of a male relative in order to get a promotion, a transfer or the recognition of grades, jobs or titles. Sometimes the goal was to make a son or nephew inherit the position of his father or uncle. After the decease of their husband or father, widows and orphans did their best lobbying to overcome the economic uncertainty of a time when insurance systems were in an embryonic stage. Among these women, we will highlight the outstanding role of those that belonged to lineages of several generations of military.

This paper was presented in the 15th International Congress on the Enlightenment within panel 160. Women of Power in the Eighteenth Century: Identity and Representation, chaired by Claire Boulard-Jouslin (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3) and coordinated by Maud Le Guellec (Université de Lille).

After the death of their husbands African women, who are living in patriarchal societies, experience cruel mourning and purification rituals, which they have to undergo and they are often stigmatized and accused of being witches. In this fatal situation, God is often their only anchor, God, who already appears in the Bible as the protector and father of widows and orphans. In the Old Testament, two book are named after widows, the Book of Rut and Judit, and in the New Testament there are numerous widow stories, primarily in Luke, which are all characterized by a special relationship with God. However, the reality in the ancient world was as follows: there was a large number of widows, working in the churches, which displeased the officials of the communities. They didn't only takeover charitable activities, but they missionized and were even paid for it. 1Tim 5:3–16, which categorizes widows, was read and interpreted by widows in Tanzania. It is demonstrated how they deal with a text, which was written for them as widows. They didn't allow themselves to be influenced by restrictions, in fact they drew out positive results. It is also highlighted how the widows interpret 1Tim on their cultural background, how they position themselves and see themselves as brides of Christ.

This article is an introduction to the topic of widowhood, and a broader discussion and research that the author presents in her book: Widows of India and Women (2021). The problem of widowhood, which we encounter in many parts of the world, is almost a struggle for survival for Indian women. Examining the issue of «India’s widows» within the framework of the crisis of the century, psychologist and researcher Zeynep Yasar, examines in this study the issue of widowhood, the perspective of the image of women glorified by Ancient Indian rituals (Sati/Jahudar) and the struggles for the prohibition of these rituals, among other important aspects.


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Die patriarchale Ehe ist für Frauen, die ihre Leben selbst bestimmen wollen, nicht unbedingt attraktiv. Deshalb gibt es in der Kulturgeschichte Frauen, die auf die Ehe verzichten. Da weibliche Ehelosigkeit in patriarchalen Strukturen als Herrenlosigkeit der Frau einen schweren Mangel darstellt, können göttliche Ehemänner virtuell an die Stelle eines irdischen Herren treten. Von der Gottesgemahlin des Amun im alten Ägypten bis zur Braut Christi reichen die Beispiele, die allerdings auch deutlich machen, dass nicht jede Ehelosigkeit für die betreffenden Frauen eine emanzipatorische Wirkung hat.

Mourning dress was one of the most pervasive sartorial symbols at the early modern court. This essay examines Henrietta Maria's adoption of such dress after the execution of Charles I and the political agendas and social ideals that informed it. Analysing portraits of the queen in mourning, this chapter argues that these works were carefully calibrated to showcase her virtuous character and piety while also functioning as public reminders of her husband's 'martyrdom' and her son's claims to the throne. As such, her representation as a widow was tailored both to the expected social and visual conventions of dress and comportment for royal widows, but also as a part of a strategic campaign for the restoration of the Stuart dynasty.

D uring the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Spanish crown was always worn by a male member of the Habsburg family. However important the position that a female member of the Royal Family occupied, be it as regent, governor or viceroy -and these positions were occupied by royal women on many occasions -they were always subordinated to a male figure. This state of affairs changed after the death of Phillip IV (), when the widowed Queen Mariana of Austria (-) became the sole regent for Charles II (-), who, besides being a child, also seemed mentally unfit to be king.

Durante a Idade Moderna, as mulheres receberam recursos específicos de instituições de assistência e de indivíduos laicos ou eclesiásticos. Os ricos dedicavam grande atenção à salvação da sua alma e os pobres granjeavam apoios económicos que lhes permitiam sobreviver às graves crises de subsistência que pautavam a vida na Idade Moderna. São paradigmas desses apoios a mulheres, a dotação de órfãs, a criação de espaços de recolhimento para mulheres, os róis de esmolas específicos para viúvas e velhas ou a criação de expostos. Questões de ordem económico-social ou razões de ordem moral justificam o esforço da sociedade de Antigo Regime em consolidar formas específicas de ajuda a mulheres pobres, cuja dependência legal dos maridos e os preconceitos religiosos vigentes lhes prescreviam grandes precauções sociais. Ao assegurar a vigilância da sua honra ou garantir o sistema patrimonial e familiar vigente, os sistemas assistenciais e caritativas sustentavam o status quo e a ordem social vigente. Os hospitais portugueses, locais de tratamento corporal e espiritual, recebiam pobres dentro das suas portas, onde eram alimentados, tratados e auxiliados com esmolas. Homens e mulheres eram convenientemente separados em diferentes alas. O seu convívio, muitas vezes à margem do normativo, afirmava o hospital como um espaço de sociabilidades e conflitos.
Na cidade de Braga, durante o período Moderno, o Hospital de São Marcos, fundado no início do século XVI pelo arcebispo D. Diogo de Sousa, tem sido investigado. Contudo, a história da assistência hospitalar bracarense não se pode contar apenas através daquela instituição. Existiu um estabelecimento de pequena dimensão que, durante três séculos, coexistiu com o Hospital de São Marcos e cujo estudo permanece inédito. Hospital de Santiago, Hospital das Velhas e Hospital das Pobres, foi uma pequena instituição sem corpo clínico regular, localizada nas traseiras de uma igreja paroquial e junto a uma das principais vias de acesso à Sé da arquidiocese. Esse pequeno hospital acolheu e tratou mulheres, aparentemente parturientes, puérperas ou viúvas.
Qual era a localização exata e que dimensão tinha esta instituição? Quais as pessoas que recebiam auxílio dentro das suas portas? Quem eram os proprietários das casas onde funcionava? Qual o significado da palavra “hospital” aplicada a este contexto? Parte destas questões podem ser respondidas através fontes indiretas, nomeadamente pelos registos paroquiais ou livros de despesas Misericórdia de Braga, cujo pagamento de mortalha, missa e cova a pobres se enquadrava no monopólio régio que as Santas Casas detinham para o seu enterramento. Apesar de nenhuma documentação institucional ter sobrevivido ao dealbar do tempo, constituem nossos objetivos: problematizar as ruturas e continuidades em redor dos conceitos de hospital, pobreza e assistência; e, debater o tecido assistencial-caritativo bracarense mediante os quadros históricos nacionais e europeus que lhe são coevos.

This chapter examines the vulnerable triad of the stranger, fatherless, and widow in Deuteronomy. Although the doublet "fatherless, widow" appears in many texts from the Near East, especially from Mesopotamia, the triad first occurs in Deuteronomy. Although the scholarship typically characterizes the stranger, fatherless, and widow as landless groups, this chapter shows that the triad's commonality is more fundamentally located in an absence of protective kinship ties and the resulting lack of means for sustaining them selves. This chapter discerns the social location of the stranger, fatherless, and widow, al so probing their treatment within the various redactions of Deuteronomy. Beyond mere charity, Deuteronomy is nourishing the inclusion of such people in the community as kindred, via covenant texts, law of judicial procedure, social law, and feasting texts. Vulnerable people are to be enfolded into the household, into the settlement and city, and into "Israel" itself.

The Eurocentric bracketing of human existence created universally defined hierarchical propositions and feminism was one of them. It focuses upon certain feminine segments in society and quite systematically ignores the others. The Feminist movement that emerged in Europe made efforts to create a globally relevant galactic project against patriarchy. But unfortunately with the geo-political shifts of time and space it was realized that the various layers and sub-layers of feminine exploitations were overlooked in different forms and intensities within multifarious socio-cultural contours. The existential binaries based upon class, communities, castes (if talking with respect to Indian socio-cultural structure), creed and religions have further nurtured and aggravated gendered complexities. The implementation of universal methodologies to address feminine conditions all over the globe needs to be seriously interrogated. This article engages with the conditions of Indian women who are regularly disrespected and rejected as widows and prostitutes. It also explores genealogical-existential ideologies underlined with mythological and political (ir)rationalities that continue to dominate their lives. Within the paradigm of 'bastuhara nari' or feminine homelessness, my research tries to explore the different options that could be undertaken to address the issues in a meticulous manner. This doesn't assure an ultimate solution but surely ensures optimistic socio-cultural moves towards better conditions of women.

The primary role of this report is to provide an in-depth analysis of all the instances of the word vidua, its meanings and uses in Latin literature from the last two centuries B.C. This close examination of the word vidua in the literary sources of this period has resulted in a number of important modifications to its definition. The word vidua, which is commonly translated by ancient scholars as widow, is not sustained by the contextual evidence of the majority of the passages that do no state explicitly the reason for the women's deprived status. Instead the word is most commonly used to mean a much broader social group of Roman women, all no longer married women, a category which includes various groups of women such as widows, divorcees, abandoned women and women whose husbands have been away for long periods of time. Furthermore the English word unmarried should not be used to translate the Latin word vidua since, as I demonstrate throughout my paper, there is a clear distinction in the Roman minds between women who are no longer married, vidua, and women who are not yet married, virgines an important distinction that gets lost with the more inclusive and broader social category meant by the word unmarried.

Christine de Pizan znana jest jako jedna z pierwszych profesjonalnych pisarek i protoplastka emancypantek — postuluje moralną i intelektualną równość płci, i w takim kontekście jest najszerzej rozpoznawalna i badana. Mniej uwagi poświęca się drodze, którą musiała przebyć, by stać się tak przełomową postacią. Tymczasem to właśnie wczesna śmierć ojca i męża sprawiły, że podjęła pisarstwo zarobkowe, dzięki któremu była w stanie samodzielnie utrzymać swoją rodzinę. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest wykazanie, w jaki sposób śmierć obecna w jej życiu, zarówno prywatnym jak i publicznym, stała się dlań katalizatorem kreatywnej ekspresji — nie tylko pewną treścią, ale i źródłem całej jej twórczości. Refleksji zostaną poddane biografia pisarki i utwory, w których podejmuje problematykę istnienia i doświadczenia śmierci. Omówione zostaną jej wczesna poezja charakteryzująca się introspekcyjnym doświadczeniem żałoby, utwory z fazy średniej, w której pisarka akceptuje nieuniknioność śmierci, oraz najbardziej dojrzałe dzieło, w którym poucza, jak pogodzić się z końcem. Największą wartość poznawczą niniejszego artykułu stanowi przełożenie na język polski wielu wcześniej nietłumaczonych fragmentów twórczości Christine de Pizan, w tym trzech pełnych utworów poetyckich. Jest nią również uporządkowanie zagadnienia radzenia sobie ze śmiercią oraz rozwinięcie koncepcji śmierci jako źródła jej literackiego dorobku.

This chapter examines the influence of Colonna's widowed poetry on three women writers of the second half of the sixteenth century: Laura Battiferri, Chiara Matraini and Francesca Turina. I demonstrate how Colonna's famous proemial sonnet, Scrivo sol per sfogar l'interna doglia, and her widowed persona more broadly, is reflected in the works of these later poets. This study also significantly elongates the timeline of Colonna's influence, proving just how late her rime vedovili were being imitated and explored: deep into the Counter-Reformation, Turina and Matraini were still engaging directly with her work as a way to legitimate their own authorial voices. The chapter's evidence also troubles longstanding scholarly understandings about how 'anxiety of influence' has worked for women writers.

The welfare of African widows has generated a significant amount of research within the past twenty years, mainly from Nigerian scholars having an insider’s knowledge of these practices, with female scholars often taking the lead. Recent years have seen scholars’ concerns spill over to the public arena, with a growing number of voices challenging long-established traditions associated with widowhood. This article briefly surveys the development of studies on this issue, focusing on Igboland, a linguistic and cultural area in south eastern Nigeria. It shows how these concerns have found their way into Nollywood films, considers the evolution of storylines and explores their links with societal trends, analyzing sixteen films produced between 1998 and 2013.

รายงานนี้เป็นส่วนหนึ่งของวิชาประวัติศาสตร์ตะวันตกก่อนสมัยใหม่ (ป. 265) ภาควิชาประวัติศาสตร์ มหาวิทยาลัยธรรมศาสตร์

งานเขียนชิ้นนี้มุ่งศึกษาที่สถานะของหญิงม่าย (Widowhood) ในอังกฤษสมัยกลาง เนื่องจากสถานะของหญิงม่ายเป็นสิ่งที่แตกต่างจากสตรีในรูปแบบอื่น กล่าวคือ เธอเหล่านั้นมิใช่ทั้งสตรีผู้ที่ยังไม่เคยมีสามีมาก่อน และไม่ใช่สตรีที่สมรสมีสามีและสามียังคงมีชีวิตอยู่ ดังนั้น ทั้งสตรีที่ยังไม่เคยสมรสซึ่งส่วนมากมักเป็นเยาวชน และสตรีที่มีสามี จึงอยู่ในฐานะที่มีผู้คุ้มครองอยู่ไม่ว่าจะเป็นสามีหรือครอบครัวของเธอ และขาดสิทธิในการที่จะตัดสินใจหรือกระทำกิจกรรมบางประการได้อย่างบุรุษ ซึ่งความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างสังคมและหญิงม่ายในแต่ละพื้นที่ก็จะมีความแตกต่างกันออกไป ในอังกฤษเป็นหนึ่งในพื้นที่ที่ผู้เขียนสนใจที่จะศึกษา เนื่องจากลักษณะเฉพาะในหลายแง่ที่เกาะอังกฤษมีความแตกต่างจากภาคพื้นทวีปยุโรป โดยการศึกษาได้ศึกษาจากงานของ Jennifer Ward เป็นหลัก


โดยผู้เขียนได้ศึกษาในแง่ของบทบาทของศาสนา ที่มีผลต่อสถานะของสตรีในสมัยกลาง การคุ้มครองสิทธิในการแต่งงานใหม่ของเธอ ศึกษาบทบาทในเชิงสังคมในแง่ของสถานะของภรรยาในบ้าน และการเป็นม่ายกับการไม่เป็นม่าย ซึ่งมีความแตกต่างกันทั้งในสิทธิและอำนาจของเธอในการจัดการกับชีวิตและทรัพย์สินของสตรีผู้นั้น สุดท้ายคือในแง่ของกฎหมาย ซึ่งเป็นกระบวนการจัดดการของรัฐต่อสังคม ซึ่งในอังกฤษช่วงรุ่งเรื่องของยุคกลางนั้น หนึ่งในกฎหมายที่มีบทบาทต่อหญิงม่ายคือ แมกนาคาร์ตา (Magna Carta) ซึ่งมีการกำหนดเรื่องทรัพย์และที่ดินของหญิงหม้ายที่ควรได้รับหลังจากการเสียชีวิตของสามี