AMAD
"Archivum Medii Aevi Digitale - Specialized open access repository for research in the middle ages"To submission
| Date: | 2017 |
| Title: | The Voice of Mary: Later Medieval Representations of Marian Communication |
| Contributor: | Sherman, Caroline (Committee member) Paxton, Jennifer (Committee member) Corcoran, Vanessa (Creator) Davis, Jennifer (Committee member) Jansen, Katherine (Thesis advisor) The Catholic University of America (Degree granting institution) |
| Description: | It is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the Virgin Mary’s role in the landscape of medieval Christian spirituality. Innumerable prayers, hymns, sermons, liturgical traditions, and other devotional practices praised her as the Mother of God and imagined her speaking profusely to her supplicants. Yet Mary only spoke in the Bible on four occasions (Luke 1:26-38, 1:46-56, 2:41-52, and John 2:1-11). Why then, given this limited speaking presence, were late medieval authors so intent on giving her an enhanced speaking role in textual sources that augmented her power?The striking transformation from the muted early Christian portrayals of Mary to the later medieval depictions of her as an outspoken matriarch cannot be ignored. My dissertation explores the emergence of Mary’s powerful persona through an examination of her speech as reported in narrative sources from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, including miracle collections, passion narratives, and mystery plays. Within both Latin and vernacular sources, authors expanded upon stories rooted in biblical and apocryphal literature to give Mary a new voice. I argue that the creation and development of “Marian speech” enabled Mary to emerge in the late Middle Ages as a more dominant, influential figure in Christian thought and worship who functioned as an active speaker and effective intercessor. Marian speech as a constructed category has yet to be considered as a means of studying devotion to the Virgin Mary. An analysis of Marian speech reveals the development in articulating her power and place in Christian piety. By analyzing Mary’s voice, this dissertation raises questions about the religious and cultural conditions that prompted this change in how authors depicted Mary. Each section of the dissertation maps out different representations of Mary’s voice, as expressed in a series of speaking roles: as student and teacher, as wife and mother, and in the sovereign roles of Queen of Heaven, mediatrix, and Empress of Hell. This thematic approach draws attention to the widespread concerns for regulating women’s speech in the Middle Ages and serves as an effective barometer for measuring both religious and social change. ; Medieval history ; Gender studies ; Religious history ; Devotional materials, Hagiography, Later Middle Ages, Medieval England, Religious Culture, Virgin Mary ; History ; Degree Awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America |
| URI: | https://www.amad.org/jspui/handle/123456789/77115 |
| Other Identifier: | http://cuislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/object/cuislandora%3A64681/datastream/TN/view/The%20Voice%20of%20Mary%3A%20Later%20Medieval%20Representations%20of%20Marian%20Communication.jpg http://hdl.handle.net/1961/cuislandora:64681 |
| AMAD ID: | 567892 |
| Appears in Collections: | BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) General history of Europe |
