Double Agents: Women and Clerical Culture in Anglo-Saxon England

286 Pages·2010·1.21 MB·English

by  Clare A. Lees

RELIGION AND CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Double Agents
Women and Clerical Culture in
Anglo-Saxon England
CLARE A. LEES AND GILLIAN R. OVERING
University of Wales Press

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RELIGIONANDCULTUREINTHEMIDDLEAGES
DoubleAgents
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SeriesEditors
DenisRenevey(Universityof Lausanne)
DianeWatt(AberystwythUniversity)
EditorialBoard
MiriRubin(QueenMary,Universityof London)
Jean-ClaudeSchmitt(ÉcoledesHautesÉtudesen
SciencesSociales,Paris)
FionaSomerset(DukeUniversity)
ChristianiaWhitehead(Universityof Warwick)
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RELIGIONANDCULTUREINTHEMIDDLEAGES
Double Agents
Women and Clerical Culture in
Anglo-Saxon England
CLAREA.LEESANDGILLIANR.OVERING
UNIVERSITYOFWALESPRESS
CARDIFF
2009
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©ClareA.LeesandGillianR.Overing,2009
Allrightsreserved.Nopartof thisbookmaybereproduced,storedina
retrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,
mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,withoutclearancefrom
theUniversityofWalesPress,10ColumbusWalk,BrigantinePlace,Cardiff,
CF104UP.
www.uwp.co.uk
BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
ISBN978-0-7083-2183-6
e-ISBN978-0-7083-2232-1
Therightsof ClareA.LeesandGillianR.Overingtobeidentifiedas
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections77,78and79oftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
PrintedinGreatBritainbyCPIAntonyRowe,Chippenham,Wiltshire
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Forourmothers
WinifredPaulineLeesandRoseOvering
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C
ONTENTS
SeriesEditors’Preface ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgements,2001 xv
ListofAbbreviations xvii
Introduction 1
1 PatristicMaternity:Bede,HildandCulturalProcreation 19
2 Orality,FemininityandtheDisappearingTraceinEarly
Anglo-SaxonEngland 56
3 LiteracyandGenderinLaterAnglo-SaxonEngland 101
4 FiguringtheBody:Gender,Performance,Hagiography 149
5 PressingHardonthe‘Breasts’of Scripture:Metaphorand
theSymbolic 204
Bibliography 231
Index 249
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