Women and Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and the Limits of Epic Masculinity. Edited by Sara S. Poor and Jana K. Schulman. New York: Palgrave, 2007. Pp. xii + 299.

According to the editors, Women in Medieval Epic "has its roots in a feminist project of recovery" that draws attention to "previously marginalized or ignored women." but, they claim, the essays presented in the volume "move quickly beyond these parameters to discussions of gender and power dynamics" and to "the larger implications these stories might have for our understanding of gender ideologies as they are formed in different literary and historical contexts, including our own" (p. 3). I find that the eleven essays fall into two groups. those in the first group do, in fact, engage these larger issues. those in the second do little more than draw attention to previously ignored women.

James A. Schultz
University of California, Los Angeles