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Queer Genealogy and the Medieval Future: Holy Women and Religious Practice

McLoughlin, Caitlyn Teresa
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555441223648827

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
This dissertation reconsiders hagiographic narratives about holy women, arguing that medieval conceptions of community, sexuality, and devotional practice are future-orientated and queer. Using The Life of Saint Katherine of Alexandria, The Book of Margery Kempe, and The Life of Dorothea of Montau, I argue that hagiography is not a closed genre governed by strict conventions, but instead a literary “place” in which social, institutional, and textual boundaries are tested. My research expands a queer historical and literary archive by examining medieval narratives that allow affective recognition between queer individuals and communities across historical periods. My research specifically traces the development of queer futures in medieval religious writing, identifying the political and textual affordances provided by the presence of these futures to nonnormative individuals and communities in the medieval period as well as the present. My dissertation foregrounds queer practices and relationships in medieval narratives, thereby expanding current understandings of medieval culture and sexuality. Reconsidering holy women through a queer lens challenges modern understandings of history that essentialize sexual identity in order to legitimize racist and sexist ideologies. My dissertation extends medieval sexuality beyond binary gender categories to account for religious representations of nonnormative sexuality and gender within the textual relationships between hagiographers and their subjects.
Karen Winstead (Advisor)
Jennifer Higginbotham (Committee Member)
Ethan Knapp (Committee Member)
233 p.
Middle Ages
medieval; queer theory; hagiography

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • McLoughlin, C. T. (2019). Queer Genealogy and the Medieval Future: Holy Women and Religious Practice [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555441223648827

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • McLoughlin, Caitlyn. Queer Genealogy and the Medieval Future: Holy Women and Religious Practice. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555441223648827.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • McLoughlin, Caitlyn. "Queer Genealogy and the Medieval Future: Holy Women and Religious Practice." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555441223648827

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.