The Third Gender and Ælfric’s Lives of Saints PDF
Preview The Third Gender and Ælfric’s Lives of Saints
T e T ird Gender and Ælfric’s Lives of Saints RICHARD RAWLINSON CENTER SERIES EDITORIAL BOARD Catherine E. Karkov University of Leeds Kees Dekker Rijksuniversiteit Gronigen Timothy Graham University of New Mexico Rosalind Love University of Cambridge Donald G. Scragg University of Manchester Paul E. Szarmach Western Michigan University emeritus Medieval Institute Publications is a program of T e Medieval Institute, College of Arts and Sciences WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY T e T ird Gender and Ælfric’s Lives of Saints Rhonda L. McDaniel Richard Rawlinson Center Series M E D I EVA L I N S T I T U T E P U B L I C AT I O N S Western Michigan University Kalamazoo Copyright © 2018 by the Board of Trustees of Western Michigan University Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 9781580443098 eISBN: 9781580443104 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or trans- mitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every ef ort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. For Kerry Scott McDaniel 1959–2013 Contents Acknowledgments viii Abreviations ix Introduction: Gender, Memory, and Seeing T ings T eir Way xi T e Latin Doctors and the Concept of Metagender 1 Metagender, Gender, and Ælfric’s Lives of Saints 69 Metagender in Genders 105 Brides and Soldiers of Christ 135 Material and Spiritual Bodies 169 Material and Spiritual Rulership 193 Chaste Marriage 223 Conclusion: Metagender, Gender, and Ælfric 243 Bibliography 247 Index 271 Acknowledgments OMETIMES I THINK THE Acknowledgments of a book like this Sshould be titled “Gratitudes” instead, though even gratitude is too small a word for the profound appreciation and respect I hold toward all those who have encouraged, exhorted, and occasionally prodded me along the way. I want to express my deepest thanks to my Doktor Vater, Paul E. Szarmach, and to Timothy C. Graham for their counsel, support, and mentoring through all the the ons and of s of this project. Profound thanks are due as well to Jana Schulman and Elizabeth Teviotdale for wel- coming me so generously to the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University and the Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Manuscript Research for a full summer as a visiting scholar, and equal thanks are due to Antonette diPaolo Healey and the staf of the Dictionary of Old English Project, T e Pontif cal Institute for Mediaeval Studies, the Centre for Medieval Studies, and the John P. Robarts Research Library at the University of Toronto for welcoming me several times as a visit- ing scholar. My own institution, Middle Tennessee State University, has provided generous funding for most of these research trips through the Faculty Research and Creative Activity Committee Grants. Special thanks also are due to Chauncey Wood and Philip E. Phillips who have always believed in me, and to David Lavery (requiescat in pace) for his determina- tion to see me publish this book. The list of people who have cheered me on throughout the writ- ing and revising of this work are too many to name, including colleagues, family, and friends beyond the university. You all listened to me, read for me, fed me, and even cleaned my house when I was too busy to do so. You know who you are and how thankful I am for your support. I will only name here my parents, T omas J. and Jewel McDaniel, who have always believed I could do more than I ever thought possible. Introduction: Gender, Memory, and Seeing T ings T eir Way Gender in Relationship It all began with women. Since the 1980s, a significant portion of the scholarship concerning gender across the disciplines in Medieval Studies has focused on women, asking such questions as: What social factors and attitudes framed and formed their lives? Did the inf uence of patriarchal Christianity always lead to oppression of women? Did early medieval women have a distinctly feminine form of spirituality? T ese questions provide a sampling of the issues and inquiries that have driven much of the research into the social status, daily lives, and the socially conditioned self-perceptions of women in the Middle Ages, opening up new areas of study and simultaneously providing new venues for interaction between 1 Medieval Studies and Women’s Studies. T e contributions of these projects to the f eld of Medieval Studies in general and to Anglo-Saxon Studies in particular have been invaluable both in terms of the new insights they have produced and the amount and fervor of scholarly discussion kindled by their results. In the f eld of Anglo-Saxon Studies, in particular, the 1980s, 1990s, and the early years of the new millennium saw f rst a small stream and then a veritable f ood of articles and books focused on women in Anglo-Saxon history and in its literary texts, poetry and prose, Latin and Old English, but especially in 2 studies of the works of Ælfric. Most of these publications take the criti- cal and interpretive stance of some form of feminism (broadly def ned), centering their investigations on those aspects of Anglo-Saxon society and literature that address women and women’s concerns. These books and articles discuss the topic of gender, but they do so as though gender were a term that mainly applied to women and of en conclude that this feminine gender was portrayed in opposition to a normative hegemonic or heroic masculinity not available to women (with the possible exception of a few 3 female virgin saints). In Anglo-Saxon Studies, as in so many other areas of
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