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This module examines the roles of women in ancient and medieval Celtic societies, and their depictions in selected literary sources relating to the Ancient Celtic Continent, to Early Medieval Ireland, and to Medieval Wales. Topics to be discussed include stereotypes in antiquity about ‘barbaric’ women and how they were and are exploited to construct the image of Celtic women; the reputed instances of female druids; Early Irish legal sources and what they reveal or conceal about the social status of women; the changing perceptions of women in Early Ireland (exemplified by the different versions of Cáin Adomnáin); and, in juxtaposition to those legal constructs, selected examples of depictions of women in Early Irish literature; finally, the specifically female outlook on the world as a modern construct, exemplified by modern interpretations of the Middle Welsh Mabinogion.
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