Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1935. / "Stellingen" (2 leaves) tipped in. Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-236) and index.

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1935. / "Stellingen" (2 leaves) tipped in. Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-236) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-205). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of English, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Vita. "List of printed works cited": p. 233-237.

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1995. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-85).

This study examines dance and dance-like sacred performance in four texts by or about the thirteenth-century beguines Elisabeth of Spalbeek, Hadewijch, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Agnes Blannbekin. These women wrote about dance as a visionary experience of the joys of heaven or the relationship between God and the soul, and they also created physical performances of faith that, while not called dance by medieval authors, seem remarkably dance-like to a modern eye. The existence of these dance-like sacred performances calls into question the commonly-held belief that most medieval Christians denied their bodies in favor of their souls and considered dancing sinful. In contrast to official church prohibitions of dance I present an alternative viewpoint, that of religious Christian women who physically performed their faith. The research questions this study addresses include the following: what meanings did the concept of dance have for medieval Christians; how did both actual physical dances and the concept of dance relate to sacred performance; and which aspects of certain medieval dances and performances made them sacred to those who performed and those who observed? In a historical interplay of text and context, I thematically analyze four beguine texts and situate them within the larger tapestry of medieval dance and sacred performance. This study suggests that medieval Christian concepts of dance, sacred performance, the soul, and the body were complex and fluid; that medieval sacred performance was as much a matter of a correct inner, emotional and spiritual state as it was of appropriate outward, physical actions; and that sacred performance was a powerful, important force in medieval Europe that various Christians used to support their own beliefs or to contest the beliefs and practices of others. / Dance

Thesis advisor: Robert Stanton / An exploration of sex and marriage and its role in the writings of three medieval women writers (or groups of writers), from the twelfth, thirteenth, and fifteenth centuries, namely, Heloïse, the Beguines Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch of Brabant, and Marguerite Porete, and Christine de Pisan. The object is to find the links between sexuality and intellectuality, if any, the role marriage plays in the expression of sexuality, and how the influence of outside institutions such as the church affect the way these women choose to express themselves in writing. Also discussed is how access to a community of women, or lack thereof, influences the output of a single female writer. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-231), discography (leaves 231-232), and filmography (leaf 232).

This thesis focuses on the communities of medieval Beguines who lived in the cities of the French Flanders region. In the context of the individual cities and communities of Beguines, the thesis deals with selected written and material sources, whose language of testimony and symbolism is subjected to critical reading and analysis from the point of view of the semiology of medieval culture, gender relations and social ties. The result is the synthesis of these contextual, methodological, and narrative perspectives into a comprehensive idea of Beguines of the French Flanders.