IMC 2003: Sessions
Session 513: Anchorites and Mystics, I
Tuesday 15 July 2003, 09.00-10.30
Sponsor: | The Anchoritic Society |
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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-a | The Voice of Authority: Rhetoric in Anchoritic Guidance Writing (Language: English) 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) Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Religious Life, Rhetoric, Theology |
Paper 513-c | The Conditions of Eligibility in the 'Ancrene Wisse' Group (Language: English) 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. |