Generation of Identity in Late Medieval Hagiograph

by Gail Ashton

An interdisciplinary and boundary-breaking study that examines the depiction of female saints in a wide range of medieval texts. The author identifies two distinct but equal voices. The first is the controlling masculine voice that defines the identity of its holy subject as saint and woman. The second is the concealed, subversive feminine voice articulated through cracks in the surface narrative. Ashton deploys the feminist theory of Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray to illuminate the portrayals of these women.

187 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 28, 1999

About the author

Gail Ashton is an academic, writer and poet with research and publishing interests in medieval and women's literature, poetry and contemporary literary theory. Recent books include Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (Continuum, 2007) and the co-edited Teaching Chaucer (Palgrave, 2007).