Overview

This ambitious book presents the first sustained analysis of the evolving representation of Cuthbert, the premier saint of northern England. The study spans both major and neglected texts across eight centuries, from his earliest depictions in anonymous and Bedan vitae, through twelfth-century ecclesiastical histories and miracle collections produced at Durham, to his late medieval appearances in Latin meditations, legendaries, and vernacular verse. Whitehead reveals the coherence of these texts as one tradition, exploring the way that ideologies and literary strategies persist across generations. An innovative addition to the literature of insular spirituality and hagiography, The Afterlife of St Cuthbert emphasises the related categories of place and asceticism. It charts Cuthbert's conceptual alignment with a range of institutional, masculine, northern, and national spaces, and examines the distinctive characteristics and changing value of his ascetic lifestyle and environment - frequently constituted as a nature sanctuary - interrogating its relation to his other jurisdictions.

Full Product Details

Author:   Christiania Whitehead
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.00cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.700kg
ISBN:  

9781108490351

ISBN 10:   1108490352
Pages:   350
Publication Date:   17 December 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

1. Blessings on pregnant seals: constructing Cuthbert's asceticism in his anonymous and Bedan vitae and the Historia ecclesiastica, 690-740; 2. Travels with my coffin: the dislocation and defence of the community of St Cuthbert in the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, 793-1050; 3. The bishop in the rain: celebrating the new order in Symeon of Durham's Libellus de exordio, Old English Durham, and the Capitula de miraculis et translationibus sancti Cuthberti, 1066-1140; 4. Expansions and contractions of saintly space in two Cuthbertine miracle collections, 1150-1210; 5. Godric of Finchale, Bartholomew of Farne, and the 'Irish' Libellus de ortu Sancti Cuthberti: three eremitic responses to St Cuthbert, 1150-1210; 6. Delimiting sanctity in two meditations from Farne Island: the Exortacio ad Contemplacionem and the Meditaciones of the Monk of Farne, 1210-1370; 7. Vernacular epitomes and encyclopedias: Southern Legendaries and the Metrical Life of St Cuthbert, 1270-1500; Conclusion.

Reviews

'[the book] is terrifically detailed and compelling, and offers scholars of medieval English literature, hagiography, and monastic and religious history a wealth of information and insightful perspectives on the evolution of this important saint across the centuries …' Shannon Godlove, Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 'The Afterlife of St Cuthbert is an ambitious and generative book that rewards engagement. The methodology performed here demonstrates the value of thinking across the lines of literary and linguistic periodization. In addition to its rich exploration of the medieval cult of this saint, Christiania Whitehead's study highlights saints' lives as literary phenomena as well as the cultural work that literary texts perform.' Heather Blurton, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

Author Information

Christiania Whitehead is an Honorary Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick, and a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of English at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland where she specialises in medieval religious literature. Her books include Castles of the Mind: a Study of Medieval Architectural Allegory (2003), The Doctrine of the Hert: A Critical Edition (co-ed.) (2010), Saints of North-East England, 600-1500 (co-ed.) (2017), and Middle English Lyrics: New Readings of Short Poems (co.ed.) (2018).

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