IMC 2009: Sessions
Session 819: Authorship and Authority: Barking Abbey and its Texts
Tuesday 14 July 2009, 16.30-18.00
| Organisers: | Jennifer Brown, Department of English, Marymount Manhattan College, New York Donna Alfano Bussell, Department of English, University of Illinois, Springfield |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Jennifer Brown, Department of English, Marymount Manhattan College, New York |
| Paper 819-a | Clemence and Catherine: The Cult of St Catherine in its Norman and Anglo-Norman Context (Language: English) Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Women's Studies |
| Paper 819-b | 'Sun num n'i vult dire a ore': The Nun of Barking and her Life of Edward the Confessor (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - French or Occitan |
| Paper 819-c | Voices of Saintliness in the Campsey Manuscript (Language: English) Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Middle English, Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Women's Studies |
| Abstract | Barking Abbey was one of the wealthiest and most well connected convents in the 12th and 13th centuries. It not only boasted an extremely large library, it had literate, educated nuns who were reading its texts. In this session, we examine the composition of Anglo-Norman hagiography at Barking: the lives of St Catherine of Alexandria by Clemence of Barking, and Edward the Confessor by the anonymous Nun of Barking, texts which may or may not have been written by the same author. Presenters address questions of authorial voice, the dialogue between author and audience, and the importance of these saints' cults at Barking. |