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IMC 2003: Sessions

Session 513: Anchorites and Mystics, I

Tuesday 15 July 2003, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:The Anchoritic Society
Organiser:Mari Hughes-Edwards, University of Salford / Liverpool John Moores University
Moderator/Chair:Liz Herbert McAvoy, Department of English Language & Literature, Swansea University
Paper 513-aThe Voice of Authority: Rhetoric in Anchoritic Guidance Writing
(Language: English)
Cate Gunn, Learning Partnerships, University of Essex
Index terms: Lay Piety, Religious Life, Rhetoric, Sermons and Preaching
Paper 513-b'Habbe þenne muche dred euch feble wummon': The Language of Fear and the Art of Persuasion in Anchoritic Guidance Writing
(Language: English)
Mari Hughes-Edwards, University of Salford / Liverpool John Moores University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Religious Life, Rhetoric, Theology
Paper 513-cThe Conditions of Eligibility in the 'Ancrene Wisse' Group
(Language: English)
Bella Millett, Centre for Antiquity and the Middle Ages, University of Southampton
Index terms: Religious Life, Rhetoric, Sermons and Preaching, Theology
Abstract

This session looks at the ways in which anchoritic guidance writers communicated certain spiritual ideals to their charges. Paper One looks at the delicate balance of power between anchorite and spiritual director which is implied in certain key high-medieval anchoritic guides. It looks in particular at the rhetoric of power employed by these writers in their construction of a language of authority. Paper Two considers the fear inherent in such guidance writing, arguing that such fear gives rise to the language of persuasion rather than prescription. It looks in particular at late-medieval anchoritic guides such as 'Speculum Inclusorum'. Paper Three looks in particular at the 'Ancrene Wisse' Group’s presentation of Christ as eligible lover for the anchorite. It moves beyond the anchoritic guidance genre and seeks to draw parallels between it and the medieval sermon genre.