IMC 2016: Sessions
Session 634: Gender at the Intersection of the Secular and Sacred in Literature
Tuesday 5 July 2016, 11.15-12.45
Sponsor: | St Andrews Gender & Transgression Conference |
---|---|
Organiser: | Lydia Hayes, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews |
Moderator/Chair: | Victoria Turner, School of Modern Languages - French, University of St Andrews |
Paper 634-a | Defrocking a Female Bishop: The French Lives of St Martha (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - French or Occitan |
Paper 634-b | Holy and Transgressive Women in Gardens: A Literary Perspective (Language: English) Index terms: Biblical Studies, Gender Studies, Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Women's Studies |
Paper 634-c | Three Men and a Baby: How Gendered was Foster-Fatherhood within and without the Monastery? (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Celtic, Monasticism |
Abstract | One of the many ways in which to conceptualise the relationship between the secular and sacred in medieval literature is to examine it through the lens of gender; specifically, looking at the identification and function of gender and gender roles in both forms of literature. The first paper in this session examines responses to Martha's holy transvestism in three French lives of the saint; the second looks at the relationship between gender and space, comparing representations of women in gardens in French Arthurian literature to those in biblical commentaries; and the third paper examines the ways in which hagiographers in 12th-century Ireland presented their saints in the role of foster father. |