Inventing the Sacred Nation: Saint Edmund of East Anglia and English Identity in Medieval Text and Image

Inventing the Sacred Nation combines the disciplines of art history and literary study to explore how the visual and textual vitae of St. Edmund of East Anglia, ninth-century royal martyr, contribute to a medieval discourse of English national identity. By utilizing St. Edmund as the project's primary lens, I go beyond solely focusing on early nationalism to determine how constructions of this saint are linked to constructions of monastic, lay, and royal identities. St. Edmund's violent death as a result of his defiance of Danish invaders makes him an exceptional model of English royal martyrdom, and the vitae emphasize the king's sacrifice for the land and subjects as much as for his faith. Unlike other saints that represent singular and thus limited forms of sanctity, Edmund embodies positions as both monastic and royal, providing a method to examine the medieval nation through its most powerful entities. Each chapter in my dissertation pinpoints particular vitae and other cultural texts, produced between the tenth and fifteenth centuries, to determine what they suggest about national identity vis-a-vis Edmund, whether it is the creation of a monastic kingship, the retrofitting of events to prophesy English history, the accommodation of a vernacular cult audience, or most significantly, the cultivation of royal identities.

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

2014

Author dc:creator

• Allen, Lesley

Contributors dc:contributor

• Barrett, Robert W.

• Literature, Medieval
• Literature, English

Identifier

(UMI)AAI3337683

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/72029