IMC 2008: Sessions
Session 601: Gender in Old English Hagiographic Texts
Tuesday 8 July 2008, 11.15-12.45
Organiser: | Jennifer Neville, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London |
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Moderator/Chair: | Jennifer Neville, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London |
Paper 601-a | Emulating Sponsus Christus: Marriage and Masculinity in Ælfric's Lives of Saints (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English, Religious Life |
Paper 601-b | The Stripped Hero: Masculinity in the Old English Andreas (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English, Rhetoric |
Paper 601-c | Transgender in the Desert: The Old English Life of Mary of Egypt (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English, Women's Studies |
Abstract | Gender is no longer solely an issue of women vs. men. In this session, we seek to explore gender in three very different Old English hagiographic texts. Melanie Heyworth will compare the construction of an active, masculine Christ with that of husbands in Ælfric's Lives of married saints. Pirkko Koppinen will offer a semiotic reading of the naked body in Andreas and explore what it is to be an adult male occupying the heroic space. Clare Lees and Diane Watt's joint paper will examine the complex interplay of gender issues in The Old English Life of Mary of Egypt. |