Saints' Lives and the Rhetoric of Gender: Male and Female in Merovingian HagiographyMedieval lives of female saints have attracted wide attention in recent years. Some scholars have argued that such texts reveal a distinctive form of female sanctity which only female hagiographers managed to properly articulate, and important writings have been attributed to female authors on that assumption. In this revisionist work, John Kitchen tests such claims through a close examination of several texts--lives of both male and female saints, by authors of both sexes--from sixth century France. He argues that sometimes the "authentic voice" of the female writer or saint sounds emphatically male. This study gives examples of how both male and female authors sometimes depicted holy women talking, acting, or even dressing like their male counterparts. Ultimately, the author aims to cast doubt on the assumption that male authors were ignorant of or hostile toward certain--specifically female--concerns. By the same token, Kitchen's work raises serious methodological problems with the gender approach to the hagiographic literature of the early Middle Ages. |
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Saints' Lives and the Rhetoric of Gender: Male and Female in Merovingian ... John Kitchen Limited preview - 1998 |
Saints' Lives and the Rhetoric of Gender: Male and Female in Merovingian ... John Kitchen No preview available - 1998 |
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Abel Acta Sanctorum appears approach ascetic autem Balthild Baudonivia Bible biblical biographies bishop Bollandists Christ Christian church claims clerical conflict contemporary context corpus CSEL Delehaye depiction described desert discussion early ecclesiastical eius enim episcopal female saints Fortunatus Fortunatus's Fortunatus's hagiography Gaul gender Germanus Goffart Graus Gregory of Tours Gregory's hagiographic literature hagiographic research hagiographic texts holy women ibid ibique ideal of sanctity instance Latin Leobardus literary Lives male saints Marcellus Martin martyr martyrdom Medieval Merovingian Merovingian hagiography MGH AA MGH SRM 1.2 miracles modern monastic Monegund monks narrative offers paradise passage Paternus portrayed pref preface present quae quam quod reference regarded religious remarks rhetorical role Saint Radegund Sainted Women sanctorum scholars scholarship Scripture secular Senoch sibi significance social sources spiritual story Sulpicius Severus trans translation typological Uytfanghe Venantius Fortunatus Vita sancti vitae patrum Volk Wemple woman words writing