Women in the Cairo Geniza
Renée Levine Melammed describes here a new research project that will examine the lives of women as reflected in the Cairo Geniza.
[The] plan is to prepare two volumes, one containing the original Judeo-Arabic transcriptions alongside a Hebrew translation, and another with translations of the documents into English. In addition, the material will be organized by categories (such as letters from husband-wife, mother-son, sisters) in order to enable a detailed historical analysis of the documents. I will be writing the introductions to the volumes in both languages. They will include a survey of the status of research on medieval Jewish women; a discussion of the significance of the Cairo Genizah in medieval Jewish history and of the nature of the documents found there that are relevant for the study of women; and an analysis of the nature of the material in this collection that sheds light on this world and allows for women’s voices to be heard, both directly and indirectly.
August 6th, 2012 at 2:02 pm
“and allows for women’s voices to be heard, both directly and indirectly.”
Anytime you see a book or something say something like that, you know it is a book or something to be ignored. That must be the most tiresome trope in all of the identity politics psuedo-scholarship: The uniqueness of women, letting the woman’s voice be heard, the women’s contribution to X, the women’s perspective on X, the impact of X on women – pathetic.