Candidate: Rhonda McDaniel

Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy

Department: English

Title: Male and Female He Created Them: Aelfric's Lives of Saints and Patristic Theories of Gender

Committee:
Dr. Paul E. Szarmach, Chair
Dr. Eve Salisbury
Dr. Timothy Graham
Dr. Jaclyn Maxwell

Date: Monday, June 30, 2003, 3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
113E Walwood

Abstract:
This work researches the writings of the four Latin Doctors, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great, in order to challenge the scholarly stereotype of misogyny and anxiety about women in the writings of these influential figures and, more importantly, to build the cultural foundation upon which to base an interpretation of Ælfric's portrayals of male and female saints in the Lives. The transmission of the ideas of the Latin Doctors is then traced into Anglo-Saxon England through Aldhelm, Bede, and Alcuin to Ælfrics around the turn of the eleventh century in order to demonstrate which cultural ideas about gender were most likely to influence Ælfric's own understanding of female and male gender. Finally, by careful analysis of both male and female saints' lives, both in Ælfric's Old English translation and in the Latin sources, the dissertation seeks to build a more accurate understanding both of Ælfric's own views about men and women, and of the attitudes he expected his audience to share.

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