Feminine biographies. Life stories inside religious communities

Abstract

The Woman in Modern Times writes shut up in her retreat - be it at the convent or at home - and she does it to communicate, to negotiate or to convey her feelings. It is difficult to keep track of her work in the domestic domain because, since it was not deemed relevant, there was no interest in preserving it. In the convent domain however, if its archives have not been pillaged or despoiled, much more has been jealously preserved for centuries inside its walls. In these convent archives we find chronicles, praises to the dead and holiness biographies, usually entrusted to the nun with the highest literary skills. These are women biographies written by women, where the authors show themselves just as they are, free from the mask behind which they had to hide their boldness in writing. These religious women write under the protection and encouragement of their communities. They fearlessly do so because they know that their writings will rest for ever in their archives. These works will become the memory of their communities’ history and of the nuns’ activities. They are a unique source to glimpse into the life of religious women and their communities in that period.