Anchorites, Wombs, and Tombs: Intersections of Gender and Enclosure in the Middle Ages (University of Wales Press - Religion and Culture in the Middle Ages)

Until recently, the figure of the medieval anchorite and the underlying ideological concepts that framed her day-to-day existence have escaped detailed examination, despite the anchorite's importance to the study of medieval culture. This collection brings together scholars in the field of gender and anchoritic studies in order to examine anchoritic enclosure from a variety of different perspectives. In so doing, the book offers conclusions about how the phenomenon of anchoritism was affected by, and in turn, influenced contemporary. Ranging From Studies Of The Influence Of Desert Eremiticism Upon A Variety Of Expressions Of Religious Enclosure In England To The Sexualized Spirituality Of The High Middle Ages And The Spilling Of Anchoritic Rhetoric Into The Laity During The Fifteenth Century, These Essays Demonstrate How Discourses Of Anchoritic Enclosure Were Repeatedly Utilized To Different Ends At Different Periods Throughout The Middle Ages And Beyond. In So Doing, They Unpick Those Physical And Metaphorical Implications Which The Anchoritic Life Presented For Its Adherents And Their Contemporaries And Trace Its Shifting Manifestations From Pre-conquest Times Up To The Reformation.--book Jacket. Introduction : Intersections Of Time And Space In Gender And Enclosure / Liz Herbert Mcavoy And Mari Hughes-edwards -- Context : Some Reflections On Wombs And Tombs And Inclusive Language / Alexandra Barratt -- Guthlac A And Guthlac B : Changing Metaphors / Santha Bhattacharji -- Representations Of The Anchoritic Life In Goscelin Of Saint-bertin's Liber Confortatorius / Rebecca Hayword -- Male And Female Cistercians And Their Gendered Experiences Of The Margins, The Wilderness And The Periphery / Elizabeth Freeman -- The Whitefriars' Return To Carmel / Johan Bergström-allen -- 'crepe Into That Blessed Style' : Enclosure Imagery In Aelred Of Rievaulx's De Institutiones Inclusarum / Kristen Mcquinn -- Gladly Alone, Gladly Silent : Isolation And Exile In The Anchoritic Mystical Experience / Susannah Mary Chewning -- Dionysius Of Ryckel : Masculinity And Historical Memory / Ulrike Wiethaus -- 'wrapt As If To The Third Heaven' : Gender And Contemplation In Late Medieval Anchoritic Guidance Writing / Mari Hughes-edwards -- 'efter Hire Euene' : Lay Audinces And The Variable Asceticism Of Ancrene Wisse / Robert Hasenfratz -- Beyond The Tomb : Ancrene Wisse And Lay Piety / Cate Gunn -- The Anchoritic Elements Of Holkham Misc. 41 / Catherine Innes-parker -- 'closyd In An Hows Of Ston' : Discourse Of Anchoritism And The Book Of Margery Kempe / Lizherbert Mcavoy. Edited By Liz Herbert Mcavoy And Mari Hughes-edwards. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [195]-216) And Index. Foreword: Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker Introduction: Liz Herbert McAvoy and Mari Hughes-Edwards Inclusive Language: Some Reflections on Wombs and Tombs - Alexandra Barratt Guthlac A and Guthlac B Changing Metaphors for a Dying Hermit - Santha Bhattacharji Representations of the Anchoritic Life in Goscelin of St-Bertin's Liber Confortatorius - Rebecca Hayward Male and Female Cistercians and their Gendered Experiences of the Margins, the Wilderness and the Periphery - Elizabeth Freeman The White Friars' Return to Carmel - Johan Bergstom-Allen "Crepe into that blessed syde" Enclosure Imagery in Aelred of Rievaulx's De Institutione Inclusarum and its Middle English Redaction - Kristen McQuinn Gladly Alone: Isolation and Exile in English Mystical Experience - Susannah Chewning Anchoritic Elements of Holkham Misc. 41 - Catherine Innes-Parker "I was confused and cried": The Carthusian Dionysius of Ryckel (c. 1402/03-1471), Masculinity and Late Medieval Mysticism - Ulrike Wiethaus "... wrapt as if to the third heaven" Gender and Contemplative Experience in Late-Medieval Anchoritic Guidance Writing - Mari Hughes-Edwards In Praise of Whips: Mortification of the Flesh in Ancrene Wisse - Bob Hasenfratz Beyond the Tomb: Ancrene Wisse and Lay Piety - Cate Gunn Voice beyond the Grave: Margery Kempe, 'deuoute ancres...of Lynne' - Liz Herbert McAvoy Until recently, the figure of the medieval anchorite and the underlying ideological concepts that framed her day-to-day existence have escaped detailed examination, despite the anchorites importance to the study of medieval culture. This collection brings together leading scholars in the field of gender and anchoritic studies in order to examine anchoritic enclosure from a variety of different perspectives. In so doing, Anchorites, Wombs, and Tombs offers illuminating conclusions about how the phenomenon of anchoritism was affected by, and in turn, influenced contemporary notions of gender difference. 'Anchorites, Wombs and Tombs' is a collection dealing with the phenomenon of anchoritic enclosure in the Middle Ages, both as a material practice & as a malleable discourse, not only within the context of individual withdrawal into the anchorhold but also the effect it had upon other established religious communities & the laity