The materiality of Middle English anchoritic devotion / edited by Michelle M. Sauer and Jenny C. Bledsoe.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Sauer, Michelle M., editor.

Bledsoe, Jenny C., editor.

Series:

Early Middle English Bks.

Early middle English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christian literature, English (Middle)--History and criticism.

Christian literature, English (Middle).

Material culture in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (138 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Leeds : Arc Humanities Press, 2021.

Summary:

Anchorites and their texts, such as <i>Ancrene Wisse</i>, have recently undergone a reevaluation based on material circumstances, not just theological import. The articles here address a variety of anchoritic or anchoritic-adjacent texts, encompassing guidance literature, hagiographies, miracle narratives, medical discourse, and mystic prose, and spanning in date from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries. Exploring reclusion and materiality, the collection addresses a series of overlapping themes, including the importance of touch, the limits of religious authority, and the role of the senses. Objects, metaphorical and real, embodied and spiritual, populate the pages. These categories are permeable, with flexible and porous boundaries, demonstrating the conflation of ideas, concepts, and manifestations in medieval materiality. In fact, the permeability of these categories demonstrates how materiality can reshape our approach to medieval texts. It leaves room for directions for future study, including the application of material analysis to previously unstudied objects, spaces, and literary artifacts.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BODIES, OBJECTS, AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THINGS IN EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH RECLUSION: AN INTRODUCTION

CLOTHING AND FEMALE RECLUSION IN THE LIFE OF MARY OF EGYPT AND THE LIFE OF CHRISTINA OF MARKYATE

MATERIALITY, DOCUMENTARY AUTHORITY, AND THE CIRCULATION OF THE KATHERINE GROUP

FRAMING MATERIALITY: RELIC DISCOURSE AND MEDIEVAL ENGLISH ANCHORITISM

RELICS AND THE RECLUSE’S TOUCH IN GOSCELIN’S MIRACLES OF ST. EDMUND

MARY, SILENCE, AND THE FICTIONS OF POWER IN ANCRENE WISSE 2.269–481

THE ANCHORITIC BODY AT PRAYER IN GOSCELIN OF SAINT-BERTIN’S LIBER CONFORTATORIUS

STUPOR IN JOHN OF GADDESDEN’S ROSA MEDICINAE

THE MATERIAL OF VERNACULAR ENGLISH DEVOTION: TEMPTATION AND SWEETNESS IN ANCRENE WISSE AND RICHARD ROLLE’S FORM OF LIVING

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF AN ANCHORITE CELL AT RUYTON, SHROPSHIRE

INDEX

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 13 Jan 2022).

ISBN:

1-64189-487-3

OCLC:

1276857007