Hrotsvitha

"Roswitha" redirects here. For other uses, see Roswitha (disambiguation).
Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim presents an aged emperor Otto the Great with her Gesta Oddonis, under the eyes of Abbess Gerberga. 1501 woodcut by Albrecht Dürer.

Hrotsvitha (c. 935–973) was a secular canoness who wrote drama and Christian poetry under the Ottonian dynasty. She was born in Bad Gandersheim to Saxon nobles and entered Gandersheim Abbey as a canoness.[1] She is considered the first female writer from the Germanosphere, the first female historian, the first person since the Fall of the Roman Empire to write dramas in the Latin West,[2] and the first German female poet.[3]

Hrotsvitha's six short dramas are considered to be her most important works.[3] She is one of the few women who wrote about her life during the early Middle Ages, making her one of the only people to record a history of women in that era from a woman's perspective.[4] She has been called "the most remarkable woman of her time",[5] and an important figure in the history of women.[1]

Little is known about Hrotsvitha's personal life.[1] All of her writing is in Medieval Latin.[6] Her works were rediscovered in 1501 by the humanist Conrad Celtes and translated into English in the 1600s.[4]

Hrotsvitha's name (Latin: Hrotsvitha Gandeshemensis) appears in various forms including: Hrotsvit, Hrosvite, Hroswitha, Hroswithe, Rhotswitha, Roswit, Roswindis and Roswitha.[7] It means "a mighty shout", and speaks to the way she wanted to glorify Christian heroes and legends, as well as the values they represent.[8] Some have commented on how this either represents or conflicts with the personality presented in her writing.[9]

While many have questioned the authenticity of Hrotsvitha's work,[10] examinations and collections of her works, coupled with multiple historical and contemporary works that speak of her, demonstrate that Hrotsvitha's work is authentic.[11] Feminist scholars have argued that this questioning of the authenticity of Hrotsvitha's work reflects a sexist narrative rather than revealing a flaw in her work or that she did not exist, as individuals have been engaging with her work for hundreds of years, and with increased intensity since her rediscovery during the German Renaissance.[11]

  1. ^ a b c Sack, Harald (6 February 2019). "Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim – The Most Remarkable Women of her Time". SciHi Blog. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  2. ^ Ives, Margaret; Suerbaum, Almut (2000). A history of women's writing in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Catling, Jo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44482-9. OCLC 42004382.
  3. ^ a b Bayerschmidt, Carl F. (1 November 1966). "Hroswitha of Gandersheim. Her Life, Times and Works, and a Comprehensive Bibliography. Edited by Anne Lyon Haight". The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory. 41 (4): 302–303. doi:10.1080/19306962.1966.11754646. ISSN 0016-8890.
  4. ^ a b Frankforter, A. Daniel (February 1979). "Hroswitha of Gandersheim and the Destiny of Women". The Historian. 41 (2): 295–314. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1979.tb00548.x. ISSN 0018-2370.
  5. ^ Emily McFarlan Miller (20 March 2019). "Hrotsvitha vs. Gobnait". Lent Madness. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  6. ^ "Hrotsvitha - Name's Meaning of Hrotsvitha". Name-Doctor.com. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  7. ^ "Hrosvitha | German poet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  8. ^ Wilson, Katharina (2004). Hrotsvit Of Gandersheim. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 3–10.
  9. ^ Coulter, Cornelia C. (1929). "The "Terentian" Comedies of a Tenth-Century Nun". The Classical Journal. 24 (7): 515–529. ISSN 0009-8353. JSTOR 3289343.
  10. ^ Hudson, William Henry (1888). "Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim". The English Historical Review. 3 (11): 431–457. ISSN 0013-8266. JSTOR 546611.
  11. ^ a b Zeydel, Edwin (July 1947). "A Chronological Hrotsvitha Bibliography through 1700 with Annotations". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 46 (3): 290–294. JSTOR 27712888.