Gender-Neutrality and Gender-Fluidity in Old English Literature

古英国文学中的性别中立与性别流动

• 批准号: 2875395
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2875395
• 关键词: Gender; Neutrality; Fluidity; Old; English

My doctoral thesis will aim to demonstrate that gender criticism of Old English literature can work outside of and dissolve binary oppositions, focussing on presentations on the ungendered body as a response to the growing body of work on how men and women are treated differently.Chapter one will explore Ælfric's homilies, Lives of Saints, and the Old English Martyrology. Christine Rauer's study on 'mann' (Rauer, 2017) and Rhonda McDaniel's work The Third Gender (McDaniel, 2018) demonstrate the possibility of untwining gender and sexuality in hagiographies, with further potential for semantic analysis to uncover emphasis on neutral humanity and morality, as opposed to ecclesiastical status and gender roles. This chapter will also explore the power of metaphor to transform the body into a neutral vessel for the holy spirit and will overall strive to identify to what extent morality and humanity are gendered issues within these genres.Chapter two will focus on medical literature, including Bald's Leechbook and the Lacnunga. Pre-existing gender criticism, including R.A. Buck's paper on the Leechbook, maintains an unwavering focus on remedies specifically for women, despite observing that 'the largest portion of remedies are aimed at treating the body in general' (Buck, 2000, p. 45). This chapter will therefore analyse the language in a selection of remedies, quantifying nouns directly indicative of gender neutrality and examining explicit authorial comments on gender, to demonstrate that a modern understanding of enforced gender binaries is an inaccurate way to view these medical texts' perception of gender.Chapter three will examine the Anglo-Saxon law codes, which some scholars argue constituted a 'golden age' for women's rights (Clark, 1995). Others note that women's value was based on marital status and childbearing ability (Hough, 2007). However, such criticisms enforce gender binaries where neutrality may be more apt, which this chapter will demonstrate through a quantitative examination of King Ælfred's gendered versus ungendered laws. Furthermore, I will demonstrate the concept of the body as an ungendered commodity, through a semantic analysis of laws on recompenses for bodily injuries and identifying a pattern of explicit comments which emphasise the will of the individual as a gender-neutral trope.The final chapter will examine gender-neutrality and fluidity in Old English poetry, with particular focus on Beowulf, Judith, Wulf and Eadwacer, and The Wife's Lament. As subjects of a large volume of gender criticism, analyses of these poems' female characters typically focus on androgyny, or traits typical to the opposite binary gender (Litton 1993; Hatton 2012). However, through dissembling enforced binaries when reading ambiguous characterisation in Old English poetry, this chapter will demonstrate that, rather than these poets undertaking a radical reversal, neutrality may better capture the poets' intentions.Beyond providing another perspective on these texts, such a thesis could make an important contribution to the current discourse surrounding notions of gender and bodily identity, by demonstrating that concepts of gender-neutrality and fluidity are not exclusive to the modern-day, but rather that rife evidence of this can be noted across the Old English literary canon.

我的博士论文将旨在证明，古英语文学的性别批评可以工作的二元对立和解散，集中在介绍了非性别的身体作为一个回应，越来越多的工作机构如何对待男人和女人的区别。第一章将探讨奥尔弗里克的布道，生活的圣徒，和古英语Martyrology。克莉丝汀劳尔对“男人”的研究（劳尔，2017年）和朗达麦克丹尼尔的工作第三性别（麦克丹尼尔，2018年）证明了在圣徒传中解开性别和性的可能性，进一步的语义分析可能揭示对中性人性和道德的强调，而不是教会地位和性别角色。本章还将探讨隐喻的力量，将身体转化为圣灵的中性容器，并将全面努力确定道德和人性在多大程度上是这些体裁中的性别问题。第二章将集中在医学文学，包括秃头的水蛭书和Lacnunga。先前存在的性别批评，包括R.A.巴克在《水蛭书》上的论文坚持了对专门针对女性的补救措施的坚定不移的关注，尽管他观察到“大部分补救措施都是针对一般身体的”（巴克，2000年，第45页）。因此，本章将分析一系列补救措施中的语言，量化直接表示性别中立的名词，并检查作者对性别的明确评论，以证明对强制性别二元制的现代理解是看待这些医学文本对性别的看法的不准确方式。第三章将研究盎格鲁-撒克逊法典，一些学者认为这是妇女权利的“黄金时代”（Clark，1995）。其他人指出，妇女的价值是基于婚姻状况和生育能力（Hough，2007年）。然而，这样的批评执行性别二进制中立可能更恰当，这一章将通过定量检查国王Alfred的性别与非性别的法律证明。此外，我将展示的概念，身体作为一个ungendered商品，通过语义分析的法律赔偿的身体伤害和识别模式的明确的意见，强调个人的意志作为一个性别中立trope.The最后一章将研究性别中立和流动性在古英语诗歌，特别是重点贝奥武夫，朱迪思，武夫和Eadwacer，和妻子的哀歌。作为大量性别批评的主题，对这些诗歌中女性角色的分析通常集中在双性同体，或相反的二元性别的典型特征（利顿1993;哈顿2012）。然而，通过在阅读古英语诗歌中模糊的特征时，掩饰被强迫的二元性，本章将证明，与其这些诗人进行彻底的逆转，中立可能更好地捕捉诗人的意图。除了提供这些文本的另一个视角，这样的论文可以对当前围绕性别和身体身份概念的话语做出重要贡献，通过证明性别中立和流动性的概念并不是现代所独有的，而是在古英语文学经典中可以注意到这一点的普遍证据。