1st Edition

The Generation of Identity in Late Medieval Hagiography Speaking the Saint

By Gail Ashton Copyright 2000
    184 Pages
    by Routledge

    184 Pages
    by Routledge

    In this interdisciplinary and boundary-breaking study, Gail Ashton examines the portrayals of women saints in a wide range of medieval texts. She deploys the French feminist critical theory of Cixous and Iriguray to illuminate these depictions of women by men and to further our understanding of both the lives and deeds of female saints and the contemporary, and almost always male, attitudes to them.

    Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; Notes; Part 1 PART I; Section 01 1 Narration and narratorial control: the masculine voice; Section 01-01-01 Mirk’s Festial; Section 01-01-02 The Life of St Katherine of Alexandria; Section 01-01-03 Early South-English Legendary; Section 01-01-04 Legendys of Hooly Wummen; Section 01-01-05 The Golden Legend; Section 01-01-06 The Canterbury Tales; Section 01-01-07 Saint Cecilia: a fissured text; Section 01-01-08 Notes; Part 2 PART II; Section 02 2 A concept of space and a notion of identity; Section 02-01-01 Psychological space; Section 02-01-02 Physical space; Section 02-01-03 St Katherine; Section 02-01-04 Maternity, paternity, and kinship; Section 02-01-05 Notes; Section 03 3 Articulating an identity: speech, silence, and self-disclosure; Section 03-01-01 Speech and silence; Section 03-01-02 Patient control: a mimesis; Section 03-01-03 St Katherine; Section 03-01-04 Other voices: tears, melody, and angels; Section 03-01-05 Notes; Section 04 4 Written on the body; Section 04-01-01 Imitatio Christi: the site of the abject; Section 04-01-02 Torture and violence: the rhythm of blood; Section 04-01-03 Notes; Conclusion: song of the saint; Notes; Bibliography; Index;

    Biography

    Gail Ashton