2015 Theses Doctoral
Flesh Made Word: Women's Speech in Medieval English Virgin Martyr Legends
This study examines the relationship of women's bodies to their speech in English virgin martyr legends of the tenth to fifteenth centuries. It identifies and traces a long tradition connecting women's virginal bodies to powerful, fruitful speech that begins with late classical writers. This tradition gives rise to the eloquent virgin martyrs of Aelfric's Lives of Saints, the Katherine Group, and Chaucer's Second Nun's Tale, and is one the fifteenth century mystic and contemplative Margery Kempe draws upon to authorize her unconventional performance of sanctity in her Book. Far from portraying them as a source of sin or pollution, English virgin martyr legends portray women's bodies as enabling their speech by serving as a dwelling place for God's Word, providing access to his revelation, and becoming the text the virgin martyr interprets for her audience in a lesson in spiritual reading practices.
Subjects
Files
- McGuire_columbia_0054D_12547.pdf application/pdf 1.23 MB Download File
More About This Work
- Academic Units
- English and Comparative Literature
- Thesis Advisors
- Dailey, Patricia A.
- Degree
- Ph.D., Columbia University
- Published Here
- March 23, 2015