Trained in the literature of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, I have always been interested in the place of women in this history and for the past forty years I taught classes in the study of Women and Power at Yale, Penn, Duke, and Cornell. In a sense, I have been working on “When Women Ruled” for 40 years, during which time my daughter has grown up to become an executive in the US film industry while her daughter has turned 5 and is certain that she is the queen of the mermaids.
Books in order of publication:
The Language of Allegory: Defining the Genre – 1979
Milton’s Spenser: The Politics of Reading – 1983
The Allegory of Female Authority: Christine de Pizan’s “Cité des Dames” – 1992
Incest and Agency in Elizabeth’s England – 2005
When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe – 2021
Oak Lawn Library Friends 