Gender-Neutrality and Gender-Fluidity in Old English Literature
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Abstract
My doctoral thesis will aim to demonstrate that gender criticism of Old English literature can work outside of and dissolve binary oppositions, focussing on presentations on the ungendered body as a response to the growing body of work on how men and women are treated differently.
Chapter one will explore Ælfric's homilies, Lives of Saints, and the Old English Martyrology. Christine Rauer's study on 'mann' (Rauer, 2017) and Rhonda McDaniel's work The Third Gender (McDaniel, 2018) demonstrate the possibility of untwining gender and sexuality in hagiographies, with further potential for semantic analysis to uncover emphasis on neutral humanity and morality, as opposed to ecclesiastical status and gender roles. This chapter will also explore the power of metaphor to transform the body into a neutral vessel for the holy spirit and will overall strive to identify to what extent morality and humanity are gendered issues within these genres.
Chapter two will focus on medical literature, including Bald's Leechbook and the Lacnunga. Pre-existing gender criticism, including R.A. Buck's paper on the Leechbook, maintains an unwavering focus on remedies specifically for women, despite observing that 'the largest portion of remedies are aimed at treating the body in general' (Buck, 2000, p. 45). This chapter will therefore analyse the language in a selection of remedies, quantifying nouns directly indicative of gender neutrality and examining explicit authorial comments on gender, to demonstrate that a modern understanding of enforced gender binaries is an inaccurate way to view these medical texts' perception of gender.
Chapter three will examine the Anglo-Saxon law codes, which some scholars argue constituted a 'golden age' for women's rights (Clark, 1995). Others note that women's value was based on marital status and childbearing ability (Hough, 2007). However, such criticisms enforce gender binaries where neutrality may be more apt, which this chapter will demonstrate through a quantitative examination of King Ælfred's gendered versus ungendered laws. Furthermore, I will demonstrate the concept of the body as an ungendered commodity, through a semantic analysis of laws on recompenses for bodily injuries and identifying a pattern of explicit comments which emphasise the will of the individual as a gender-neutral trope.
The final chapter will examine gender-neutrality and fluidity in Old English poetry, with particular focus on Beowulf, Judith, Wulf and Eadwacer, and The Wife's Lament. As subjects of a large volume of gender criticism, analyses of these poems' female characters typically focus on androgyny, or traits typical to the opposite binary gender (Litton 1993; Hatton 2012). However, through dissembling enforced binaries when reading ambiguous characterisation in Old English poetry, this chapter will demonstrate that, rather than these poets undertaking a radical reversal, neutrality may better capture the poets' intentions.
Beyond providing another perspective on these texts, such a thesis could make an important contribution to the current discourse surrounding notions of gender and bodily identity, by demonstrating that concepts of gender-neutrality and fluidity are not exclusive to the modern-day, but rather that rife evidence of this can be noted across the Old English literary canon.
Chapter one will explore Ælfric's homilies, Lives of Saints, and the Old English Martyrology. Christine Rauer's study on 'mann' (Rauer, 2017) and Rhonda McDaniel's work The Third Gender (McDaniel, 2018) demonstrate the possibility of untwining gender and sexuality in hagiographies, with further potential for semantic analysis to uncover emphasis on neutral humanity and morality, as opposed to ecclesiastical status and gender roles. This chapter will also explore the power of metaphor to transform the body into a neutral vessel for the holy spirit and will overall strive to identify to what extent morality and humanity are gendered issues within these genres.
Chapter two will focus on medical literature, including Bald's Leechbook and the Lacnunga. Pre-existing gender criticism, including R.A. Buck's paper on the Leechbook, maintains an unwavering focus on remedies specifically for women, despite observing that 'the largest portion of remedies are aimed at treating the body in general' (Buck, 2000, p. 45). This chapter will therefore analyse the language in a selection of remedies, quantifying nouns directly indicative of gender neutrality and examining explicit authorial comments on gender, to demonstrate that a modern understanding of enforced gender binaries is an inaccurate way to view these medical texts' perception of gender.
Chapter three will examine the Anglo-Saxon law codes, which some scholars argue constituted a 'golden age' for women's rights (Clark, 1995). Others note that women's value was based on marital status and childbearing ability (Hough, 2007). However, such criticisms enforce gender binaries where neutrality may be more apt, which this chapter will demonstrate through a quantitative examination of King Ælfred's gendered versus ungendered laws. Furthermore, I will demonstrate the concept of the body as an ungendered commodity, through a semantic analysis of laws on recompenses for bodily injuries and identifying a pattern of explicit comments which emphasise the will of the individual as a gender-neutral trope.
The final chapter will examine gender-neutrality and fluidity in Old English poetry, with particular focus on Beowulf, Judith, Wulf and Eadwacer, and The Wife's Lament. As subjects of a large volume of gender criticism, analyses of these poems' female characters typically focus on androgyny, or traits typical to the opposite binary gender (Litton 1993; Hatton 2012). However, through dissembling enforced binaries when reading ambiguous characterisation in Old English poetry, this chapter will demonstrate that, rather than these poets undertaking a radical reversal, neutrality may better capture the poets' intentions.
Beyond providing another perspective on these texts, such a thesis could make an important contribution to the current discourse surrounding notions of gender and bodily identity, by demonstrating that concepts of gender-neutrality and fluidity are not exclusive to the modern-day, but rather that rife evidence of this can be noted across the Old English literary canon.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Megan Cavell (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Francesca Ash (Student) |