The assembled body: Anatomical enumeration and embodiment in Anglo-Saxon devotional texts

"""The Assembled Body: Anatomical Enumeration and Embodiment in Anglo-Saxon Devotional Texts"" argues that Anglo-Saxon Christians viewed the material body as a potent site for spiritual transformation. This notion finds its fullest expression in the rhetorical scheme of anatomical enumeration which appears across a diverse collection of Old English and Anglo-Latin devotional forms that range from the seventh to eleventh century, such as anonymous personal protective charms and prayers, confessional formulae, monastic execrations, scientific writing and diagrams produced Byrhtferth, as well as a number of Ælfric of Eynsham's vernacular homilies. This project demonstrates how Anglo-Saxon authors employed such enumerative anatomical catalogs to highlight the vibrancy of the flesh at moments spiritual uncertainty. Casting the material body as an assemblage of agents, this rhetorical disarticulation of the flesh enables readers to envision the realignment and reintegration of their disordered and disobedient limbs into the unity of Christ's spiritual body."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Williams, Kyle Joseph

Contributors dc:contributor

• Trilling, Renée R.
• Wright, Charles D.
• Camargo, Martin M.
• Hansen, Jim

• Anglo-Saxon
• Old English
• Anglo-Latin
• spirituality
• devotion
• lorica
• charms
• anatomical enumeration
• body
• New Materialism
• Thing Theory
• selfhood
• identity

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2018 Kyle Joseph Williams

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101265

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/101265