‘Transfiguration’s coming’: An investigation of the depiction of interspecies transformation in medieval Irish literature
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis examines the depiction of interspecies transformation, that is, the transformation of living beings between species of animal including human, in medieval Irish literature. It spans texts written from the seventh to the fourteenth centuries, using the wide temporal range, along with an investigation of a number of genres, to consider the many ways in which transformation appears in these texts, and how it functions as a thematic phenomenon. This thesis uses as a primary theoretical lens the work of Gilles Deleuze and Féliz Guattari in their work *A Thousand Plateaus*, which theorises about non-linear methods of relation. This framework works alongside writing from eco-critical theorists like Donna Haraway and trans theorists like Eva Hayward. The thesis develops an expansive approach to the depiction of transformation, considering not only the individual who transforms, at the moment of their change, but relationships between species more broadly, and transformation as a process that begins before, and extends past, the instant of change. The first chapter of the thesis considers the corpus of transformation in medieval Irish literature as a whole, looking broadly at how transformation occurs, what species appear in narratives of transformation, and anxieties surrounding cannibalism, domestication, and other aspects in the relationship between human and animal. This chapter also establishes the thesis’s theoretical framework. Examination of medieval Irish texts featuring transformation between species reveals that transformation is inflected by genre, and occurs in vastly different forms and circumstances dependent on the type of text in which it appears. The thesis thus continues by unfolding its argument over a number of different generic categories. Chapters 2 and 3 consider a body of texts which tell the stories of individuals whose transformations between species grant them supernatural longevity, in turn allowing them to impart their life stories t…
abstract: This thesis examines the depiction of interspecies transformation, that is, the transformation of living beings between species of animal including human, in medieval Irish literature. It spans texts written from the seventh to the fourteenth centuries, using the wide temporal range, along with an investigation of a number of genres, to consider the many ways in which transformation appears in these texts, and how it functions as a thematic phenomenon. This thesis uses as a primary theoretical lens the work of Gilles Deleuze and Féliz Guattari in their work *A Thousand Plateaus*, which theorises about non-linear methods of relation. This framework works alongside writing from eco-critical theorists like Donna Haraway and trans theorists like Eva Hayward. The thesis develops an expansive approach to the depiction of transformation, considering not only the individual who transforms, at the moment of their change, but relationships between species more broadly, and transformation as a process that begins before, and extends past, the instant of change. The first chapter of the thesis considers the corpus of transformation in medieval Irish literature as a whole, looking broadly at how transformation occurs, what species appear in narratives of transformation, and anxieties surrounding cannibalism, domestication, and other aspects in the relationship between human and animal. This chapter also establishes the thesis’s theoretical framework. Examination of medieval Irish texts featuring transformation between species reveals that transformation is inflected by genre, and occurs in vastly different forms and circumstances dependent on the type of text in which it appears. The thesis thus continues by unfolding its argument over a number of different generic categories. Chapters 2 and 3 consider a body of texts which tell the stories of individuals whose transformations between species grant them supernatural longevity, in turn allowing them to impart their life stories t…
author: Runge, Roan
language: eng
keywords: Celtic Studies, Interspecies transformation, Medieval Irish Literature
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/5c33b826-b284-4193-9072-f4a3c87e06e9/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2023-06-01
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:53Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.106567