Medieval Romance and its Knowledge Economy: From Sorceresses to Scholars

In her inaugural lecture at the University of Groningen, Prof. Dr. Megan Leitch will show how late-medieval England developed romances, or tales of knights, quests, dragons and princesses, into proto-feminist narratives that deployed magic to question the politics of access to knowledge and power. Just as we work and study in knowledge economy – an economy in which education, innovation and intellectual skills are forms of human capital – so too were these medieval romances shaped by a knowledge economy: one in which knights would not achieve their goals, whether martial or marital, without the help of various knowledgeable and wise interlocutors such as merchants, sorceresses, and female servants, or handmaidens. These stories explore how women’s magic results from book-learning despite the fact that women were not allowed to attend university, using the fantastical to imagine a better future in which marginalised voices drive change and modern universities champion inclusivity and academic freedom