Recent discussions of the state of Medieval Studies, sparked by such books as Lee Patterson’s Negotiating the Past, provide an important impetus for this thesis because they highlight the critical abyss which exists between Medieval Studies and other areas of literary studies. For one entering the field of Medieval Literary Studies this revelation is disturbing and inhibiting. However, the history of Medieval Studies cannot be ignored by those now working within the area. If Medieval Studies is to survive it must come to terms with its past and recognise the precarious position in which the discipline now stands as a result of its academic isolation. ...

Recent discussions of the state of Medieval Studies, sparked by such books as Lee Patterson’s Negotiating the Past, provide an important impetus for this thesis because they highlight the critical abyss which exists between Medieval Studies and other areas of literary studies. For one entering the field of Medieval Literary Studies this revelation is disturbing and inhibiting. However, the history of Medieval Studies cannot be ignored by those now working within the area. If Medieval Studies is to survive it must come to terms with its past and recognise the precarious position in which the discipline now stands as a result of its academic isolation. ...

Thesis (Ph. D)--University of Oklahoma, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2005. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (July 17, 2006) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis interprets The Book of Margery Kempe using a medieval medical approach. Through an interdisciplinary methodology based on a medical humanities framework, the thesis explores the significance of Kempe’s painful experiences through a broad survey of the human life cycle, as understood in medieval culture. In exploring the interplay of humoral theory, medical texts, religious instruction and life cycle taxonomies, it illustrates the porousness of medicine and religion in the Middle Ages and the symbiotic relationship between spiritual and corporeal health. In an age when the circulation of medical texts in the English vernacular was increasing, scholastic medicine not only infiltrated religious houses but also translated into lay praxis. Ideas about the moral and physical nature of the human body were thus inextricably linked, based on the popular tradition of Christus medicus. For this reason, the thesis argues that Margery Kempe’s pain, experience and controversial performances amongst her euen-cristen were interpreted in physiological and medical terms by her onlookers, as ‘pain-interpreters’. It also offers a new transcription of the recipe from B.L. Add. MS 61823, f.124v, and argues for its importance as a way of reading the text as an ‘illness narrative’ which depicts Margery Kempe’s spiritual journey from sickness to health. The chapters examine Kempe’s humoral constitution and predisposition to mystical perceptivity, her crying, her childbearing and married years, her menopausal middle age of surrogate reproductivity, and her elderly life stage. Medical texts such as the Trotula, the Sekenesse of Wymmen and the Liber Diversis Medicinis help to shed light on the ways in which medieval women’s bodies were understood. The thesis concludes that, via a ‘pain surrogacy’ hermeneutic, Kempe is brought closer to a knowledge of pain which is transformational, just as she transforms through the stages of the life cycle.

Sir Thomas Malory’s fifteenth-century prose romance, Le Morte Darthur, depicts public and private identity as distinct and often incompatible halves of the Arthurian courtly community. In addition, masculine and feminine identity are represented as having different roles and functions within the text. Arthurian scholarship has predominantly focused on Malory’s portrayals of masculine and communal identity, as exemplified by central figures such as Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. However, in the past two decades an increasingly concentrated interest in the Morte’s female protagonists has emerged. As a contribution to this burgeoning site of critical inquiry I offer a tripartite case study of three marginal queens in this text: Igraine, Morgause and Morgan. Despite being the mother and sisters of King Arthur, these women have attracted comparatively little attention, either as individuals or as a family. This thesis argues that Malory presents noteworthy portraits of marginality in Igraine, Morgause and Morgan, which reveal the significance of space to the formation of identity in the Morte. Each of these protagonists is imagined in a variety of spaces in the Arthurian world: narrative, social, geographical, physical and emotional. Such spaces are contained within two principal romance locations, the court and quest wilderness, in which protagonists’ expressions and activities differ. Courts are typically governed by patriarchal authorities such as kings, knights, magicians and clerics, who privilege masculine public identity and political issues affecting the Arthurian community. By contrast, the quest wilderness encompasses places governed by what are termed ‘matriarchal’ authorities including queens, ladies, supernatural women and nuns, where private identity and individual emotions are more readily expressed. Marginal women speak and act in both the court and quest wilderness, but their identities are articulated differently in each. This thesis argues that Malory’s text presents moments when Igraine, Morgause and Morgan are marginalised by the Arthurian community critically, whilst the development of their individual identities in the quest wilderness is depicted sympathetically. As such, an examination of these protagonists’ movements across a variety of spatial boundaries in the world of the story as well as the narrative’s composite structure offers a revised reading of identity, gender and marginality in Malory studies. This thesis challenges two dominant assumptions about female voice and agency in the field. Firstly, that marginality is primarily a position of disempowerment, particularly for medieval women. Secondly, that marginal individuals are inherently subversive and threaten the Arthurian community.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / This thesis concentrates on the role of Welsh noblewomen in the history of Wales in the thirteenth century. Their absence from this history until quite recently is discussed, and several outstanding Welsh noblewomen have been studied in detail. The women studied include the mothers, wives and daughters of the native Welsh rulers of Gwynedd as well as noblewomen from northern Powys, Cydewain, Ceredigion, and so on. One chapter of the work is devoted to the Welsh Laws of Women which, although somewhat archaic by the thirteenth century, were still in use in some parts of Wales and help provide background. Another chapter investigates the evidence for women in the extant literature and poetry of the period. The thesis explores the themes of women’s access to power through the family and also the ability of Welsh noblewomen to take action in their own and their family members’ interests, in the public sphere, when they felt it was necessary. While the later years of the thirteenth century witnessed the final defeat of the Welsh by the Anglo-Normans after more than two hundred years, earlier in the century, Welsh leaders had been able to unite under the leadership of the rulers of Gwynedd and achieve a measure of independence from their oppressors. Welsh noblewomen played an important part in this recovery of Welsh power and their participation in this aspect of Welsh medieval history is also explored. It is clear from the evidence collected that most of the noblewomen studied owned land, in spite of the prohibition against women owning land under native Welsh law. Welsh noblewomen supported their fathers, husbands and sons, and they also took direct action themselves when the need arose.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / This thesis concentrates on the role of Welsh noblewomen in the history of Wales in the thirteenth century. Their absence from this history until quite recently is discussed, and several outstanding Welsh noblewomen have been studied in detail. The women studied include the mothers, wives and daughters of the native Welsh rulers of Gwynedd as well as noblewomen from northern Powys, Cydewain, Ceredigion, and so on. One chapter of the work is devoted to the Welsh Laws of Women which, although somewhat archaic by the thirteenth century, were still in use in some parts of Wales and help provide background. Another chapter investigates the evidence for women in the extant literature and poetry of the period. The thesis explores the themes of women’s access to power through the family and also the ability of Welsh noblewomen to take action in their own and their family members’ interests, in the public sphere, when they felt it was necessary. While the later years of the thirteenth century witnessed the final defeat of the Welsh by the Anglo-Normans after more than two hundred years, earlier in the century, Welsh leaders had been able to unite under the leadership of the rulers of Gwynedd and achieve a measure of independence from their oppressors. Welsh noblewomen played an important part in this recovery of Welsh power and their participation in this aspect of Welsh medieval history is also explored. It is clear from the evidence collected that most of the noblewomen studied owned land, in spite of the prohibition against women owning land under native Welsh law. Welsh noblewomen supported their fathers, husbands and sons, and they also took direct action themselves when the need arose.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Melbourne, 1994. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis examines the visionary writings of Elisabeth of Schönau, a nun of Schönau monastery, which was a double house in the diocese of Trier between 1152 and 1165. I argue that Elisabeth’s works dynamically engaged various religious audiences (monastic and clerical) in order to provide spiritual guidance to diverse types of people (monks, nuns, abbots, abbesses, and clerics). Elisabeth’s writings not only represent the self-reflection of a twelfth-century woman visionary, but also demonstrate the ways in which Elisabeth forged her spiritual authority by reacting to, and at times anticipating, the reception of her visions by her community. While Elisabeth rhetorically described herself as a passive receptor of divine knowledge, she actively worked to shape the practice of worship first within her monastic community and then, once her authority grew beyond Schönau, amongst a wider audience.