商品簡介
Descriptions of the often sexual in nature violence against female saints are not for the squeamish, but medieval readers understood what pagan torturers did not: that these women were among the select few that could transcend such violation. Exploring Old English texts ranging from AElfric's Lives of Saints to Beowulf , Horner (English, Shippensburg U.) not only analyzes women's devotional practices in Anglo-Saxon England and period literary representations of femininity, but also links the ideological enclosure of cloistered women with the premium put on virginity. The author concludes that these models of female enclosure prefigured the surge of women's literature and spirituality in the later Middle Ages. Includes an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
作者簡介
Shari Horner is Assistant Professor of English at Shippensburg University.
