IMC 2017: Sessions
Session 1520: The Dangerous Other: Transgressing Gender in Medieval English Hagiography
Thursday 6 July 2017, 09.00-10.30
| Organisers: | Meg Gregory, Department of English, Illinois State University Sarah Schäfer-Althaus, Fach Anglistik, Universität Koblenz-Landau |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Elizabeth Keohane-Burbridge, Department of History, Woodward Academy, Georgia |
| Paper 1520-a | (Un)Holy Unions: Bodily Enmeshment in the Old English Life of Mary of Egypt (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1520-b | Gender Identity and the Cross-Dressed Body in the Lives of St Pelagia and St Margaret-Pelagia (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1520-c | Crucifying Hairiness: Gender Hybridity in the Life of St Wilgefortis (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Sexuality, Women's Studies |
| Abstract | The effect of sexual and gender hybridization, of 'inbetweenness', is a frequently employed theme in the construction of the unexplainable Other in medieval English literature and in particular in women's hagiography. These hybrid figures are beings on the border, who perform as men. As such, these women highlight hierarchies inherent in the patriarchal system and also through their very existence challenge and transgress them, making these women threats to the social environment. This panel explores the monstrous or dangerous hybridity (physical and otherwise) of those female saints who stand between the human and the non-human world, femininity, and masculinity. |